Tony Khan has shed light on one of the lesser-known sparks behind the creation of AEW, and it came from a move made by none other than Vince McMahon. During an appearance on Leap Academy with Ilana Golan, Khan recalled how WWE’s Chairman publicly relaunching the XFL in 2018 gave him pause, and ultimately pushed him toward launching an alternative wrestling promotion instead.

“In 2018, the McMahon family announced they were going to relaunch the XFL. That probably also had an effect on my thinking because that sounded like a terrible idea to me.

“The amount of money they were going to put into it, when the NFL is such a dominant competitor and the NFL is so strong, and I was proven right because the XFL did go bankrupt, I thought, ‘That’s not going to work.’ You know what would work? A second wrestling league.”

Khan believed the idea of challenging WWE was far more viable than going up against the NFL. He argued that the wrestling industry had more room for competition due to its deep talent pool and a fanbase hungry for fresh content. As both a wrestling and football fan, Khan said wrestling needed an alternative more than football did.

McMahon’s XFL was forced to fold in 2020, largely due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later that year, the league was acquired by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and merged with the USFL to form the United Football League in 2023.

Now over six years since its formation, AEW has solidified itself as WWE’s most prominent rival. Whether it can one day surpass WWE remains to be seen, but its position as a major player in the industry is firmly established.