AEW's Tony Khan Reveals How TNT Reacted to Nick Gage Appearance

12/01/2021 10:44 pm EST

AEW shocked wrestling fans when they brought in GCW World Champion and noted deathmatch wrestler Nick Gage for Chris Jericho's trials of Jericho storyline, and the two shocked even more when they had a deathmatch the next week that featured weapons of all kinds, including a spot with a pizza cutter that got everyone talking. During an appearance on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast, AEW head Tony Khan was asked about bringing Gage in and his view on deathmatches in general. Khan had nothing but great things to say about Gage and the moment they created, and his appearance did get a pop from both the audience and TNT executives.

"I wouldn't want to watch a whole card of it or for six months straight, but I think for a big match of big payoff, it can be really good. In that case, if we're going to bring in Nick Gage, I thought it made sense to do it that way as opposed to having Nick Gage doing Marquis of Queensbury or chain wrestling, even though he's a very capable wrestler. I thought it was going to be a lot of fun and even on the TNT side, we had the marketing call, and going into it people were fans of Nick Gage and people knew him. When I said we were going to bring him in, he got a pop, even from the network side. People all over are familiar with his work and it was definitely a calculated thing. When Chris mentioned him, I knew it was going to be a crazy match. I gave it the thumbs up because that's the spirit of AEW, independent wrestling and he's a big thing on independent wrestling," Khan said.

Now, TNT was not so thrilled about all the flack they got for the Domino's Pizza ad coming right after a bloody spot with a pizza cutter in the ring, but in an interview with Sean Waltman's Pro Wrestling 4 Life podcast, Gage said it was just a coincidence.

"I didn't even know about Domino's until it was over and someone told me. I was focused on carving up Chris Jericho. I got to the back, leaking out of my arm, and they told me, 'There was a Domino's commercial after you were carving Chris Jericho up.' I started laughing. What a coincidence. I was focused on making that man bleed," Gage said.

What did you think of Gage appearing on AEW? Let us know in the comments!

H/T Fightful

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