AEW President Tony Khan believes the promotion is enjoying one of the most successful periods in its history, pointing to rising television audiences, strong pay-per-view performances, and expanding streaming reach as signs the company continues to grow.

Speaking with Yahoo Finance, Khan reflected on whether AEW has fulfilled the vision he had when launching the promotion in 2019. He said bringing professional wrestling back to TBS and TNT was always a personal goal, and believes AEW has exceeded expectations by building a lasting brand.

"Absolutely, yes. My vision and dream was to be able to put on wrestling and have it be a lasting thing, and bring wrestling back to TBS and TNT, where I grew up watching wrestling. Thankfully, we've been able to do that.

"We started having Wednesday Night Dynamite in 2019. The show still runs on TBS every Wednesday, and then we have Collision every Saturday. This is my dream, to be able to keep the show strong, and the show is thriving."

Khan also highlighted the recognition AEW received throughout 2025, noting that several major media outlets honored the promotion and its events. He believes those accolades reflected meaningful progress, while insisting 2026 has been an even stronger year.

"Last year, Sports Illustrated voted AEW the best wrestling promotion in the world. Also, a number of major media companies, including Yahoo, ESPN, Sports Illustrated and the New York Post, all awarded AEW the best wrestling event of the year. These are awards we hadn't won the year before, so to be able to stack up all these awards last year showed we're making progress.

"This year, I feel we're doing even better in 2026. Halfway into the year, our viewership is up double digits. We're trending in a great direction. AEW is doing really well on TV, but also our major pay-per-view events are way up.

"Why? I think the quality of the wrestling has been very consistent and keeps getting better. People love seeing the best matchups and the great rivalries."

Khan also praised the recent Beach Break edition of AEW Dynamite, headlined by Kenny Omega defeating MJF to capture the AEW World Championship. According to Khan, the episode drew the company's largest TBS audience since the Blood and Guts special in July 2024.

However, he argued that comparing current television ratings with previous years fails to account for AEW's expanded distribution through HBO Max, saying the company's total audience is significantly larger than traditional Nielsen figures alone suggest.

"We just had our most-watched episode of Wednesday Night Dynamite in years for the big Beach Break show last week, with MJF versus Kenny Omega for the World Championship.

"Last week was our highest viewership in years on TBS, and it was the most since our big Blood and Guts cage match in 2024. Two years ago, we weren't streaming on HBO Max yet, so the viewership now, the true viewership, is actually much higher because not only do we have the TBS viewers, but we also have the streaming viewership.

"In reality, this is the hottest and most viewers we've had in a long time, if ever. It feels like the excitement around AEW today is at an all-time high."

With major events still to come, including All In at Wembley Stadium, Khan believes AEW is carrying significant momentum into the second half of 2026 and remains confident the company is continuing to build on its strongest foundation yet.