Tony Khan Explains How the AEW/Impact Wrestling Crossover Got Started

The crossover between All Elite Wrestling and Impact Wrestling hit new heights this past week. First, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson arrived with their Impact World Tag Team Championships on last week's AEW Dynamite for a surprise six-man tag match alongside Kenny Omega. "The Cleaner" then joined the Good Brothers for another six-man match at Impact Wrestling's Hard to Kill pay-per-view this past Saturday, which saw Omega pin Impact World Champion Rich Swann. While appearing on Renee Paquette's Oral Sessions this week, Tony Khan was asked how this unexpected crossover began.

"It was Kenny's idea," Khan said (h/t Wrestling Inc.) "He asked me about it, and I love good ideas. I don't do every idea. But this is something that Kenny brought up that I thought was a great idea. He put a lot of thought and time into this. I give 100 percent of the credit to Kenny.

"Don Callis and Kenny have a very close relationship and, you know, I think that was behind it, but I also think Kenny believed that Don would be a very powerful advocate for him; the role of a really, really strong heel manager for Kenny as the top heel in the territory," he added. "Really, I think Kenny is the top heel in wrestling right now. I think that's what people wanted to see... I think people were really ready to see this Kenny Omega. He was excited to present it. He put so much thought into innovating and changing. That's why I think the two best wrestlers in the world are Kenny and Jon [Moxley]."

The weekly crossover has also seen Khan and Tony Schiavone appear on Impact television via "paid ads" where the two poke fun at the smaller promotion before hyping up the lineup for that week's Dynamite. He said they keep making them because the fans enjoy them, but that it won't lead to him becoming an on-screen character on AEW television.

"I made a big exception coming out, and I thought it was the right thing to do for the company on how much Brodie [Lee] meant to us," Khan said. "I wanted to pay the highest respect I could to him and his family and be there for them. But other than that, I've never come out and done that in that role. Occasionally, because of the story with Impact, it makes sense...But I don't want to do that. We have a limited amount of TV time, and we have a great roster that needs to be featured. The character of the general manager does not need to be featured a lot."