Tony Khan: Really Exciting Time In AEW

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bluenile.com See you're out! Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. This is the Rich Eisen Show. I think Angel Hernandez should have announced he's retiring where he would show up in every stadium and somebody would give him a gift. You know?

Free LASIK. The Rich Eisen Show. Earlier on the show ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Villas. Yes Network Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay.

Coming up CEO and general manager of All Elite Wrestling Tony Khan. And now it's Rich Eisen. Our number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. We just sent Michael Kay back down the 405 down to south of Anaheim where he'll be uh. That's no joke how long that drive is.

It is no joke. It's very nice for him to do that. Yeah and I was just in the back when he left.

I think he did have a handful of goodies. That's lunch. I gave him one of our mugs and I'm like uh this is for you uh for for coffee and he says I'm a tea drinker. I've never had coffee.

Me and Michael Kay baby. I wouldn't even say I'm surprised after the condiment thing so I mean I'm sipping tea. I knew the condiment thing. Now you've never had coffee. Never had coffee. Never once. Never once. Never once. Never once. Had a cup of coffee. Never. I rarely drank it. There's some green tea right now. I rarely drank coffee like very very rarely drank coffee and then I met somebody named Suzy Schuster and she has been a a coffee drinker since jump.

I don't remember the last time she didn't have one. I used to go to when I ever used to you know fly out of airports. I always used to look at those long Starbucks lines of like 50 people deep and I used to say thank god I'm not a coffee drinker.

I don't have to I don't have to deal with that. Now when I flew back from Calgary the other day I was like person 26 on that line. Gladly.

Happily on that line. The only thing I cannot stand about um uh like about ordering uh Starbucks at the airport for some reason I just can't keep straight the difference between a venti and a grande. You know what I just so I just say when I order out I'm like just give me the biggest one you got. Can we just call it small medium right?

Like why? I don't do the venti venti venti. Which is which is bigger venti or grande?

No idea. Why are we being bougie about it? Venti's bigger. I just say the biggest one.

I say give me a large or a medium guy. I say I want something so leaded with an undertow. Okay it's it's so deep it's got to have an undertow to it. Like it needs to pull me down into the caffeine and inject it in my veins. That's that's Suzy's turned me into a die-hard coffee drinker. But you've never had it.

That's incorrect. When Brock when we were in Detroit Brockman and I were going to get breakfast for the show and remember I was telling you that's one thing I'm so glad I never got addicted to was coffee. Like people who can't like operate without having coffee and then it's costly too.

Like it's not cheap. Adds up. I know uh Tony Khan is about to join us. Is he in our green room right now?

Is he is he? Okay very good um Tony Khan will be here um and uh he's shortly to to arrive here and you know I wanted to have him on right after the draft but um he couldn't be here on the show because he wouldn't be able to have turned his head to um make eye contact with me because he had a neck brace on. Yeah that's what from a horrible what was it a pile driver? No I mean we were going to call it the TK driver that the Young Bucks gave him.

Okay which is like an inverted pile driver. Okay yeah and look we're lucky he's the man still alive to be quite honest with you. It was incredibly dastardly by the Young Bucks to do that. Okay so and so he was in the draft room the entire time with the neck brace on. I'm sure in just an incredible amount of pain. Look at his face. I mean look at how he needed to shift his entire upper body to look at the draft board.

I mean you know. And look how concerned his dad is right there. His dad is very concerned. Well Sean got in the ring right? I mean look that's how you know after he got laid out his dad along with a bunch of other wrestlers had to come and check on him and I think that's the first time Mr Shad had ever been in the ring. That tells you how serious Prockman the situation was for him to get laid out like that. So it's been a while so thankfully he's all healed up. He's fine. Well he'll never be a hundred percent again let's just not let's make that like clear right now Rich.

He'll never be a hundred percent again after what he went through and I'm I'm amazed that he's here today to be quite frankly. Look at you. Look at you setting the stage. I'm just saying. Okay. You ever been TK Driver? You don't want that. Let me think about this. Let me think about my days of of my life. Have I ever been TK Driver?

No I think that's something I remember. Yeah you don't want that. I don't wish that on any of you. AEW Dynamite is live tonight from the Kia Forum by the way right here in Los Angeles up the road 8 Eastern Time on PBS. PJ are you in the house? You going? Oh come on.

Necessary. You know. You're going? Yeah well I'm thinking I'm getting tickets but.

Now I know why he's so helpful in booking Tony Khan. Waiting for the hookup. Oh my bad. Wait a second. You're rubbing off on him Mike. If it's free it's him.

That's exactly it. And you better have the same seats you got for uh for Kaitlyn Clark's appearance. I could have been here. At the downtown hosto Joe the other night. I could have been down near him but. You said in court Mike come on baby. Yes I could have had two seats and I.

Right next to Ashton Kutcher? I asked people if they wanted to go. You didn't ask us. Oh you didn't ask me.

Yes I did. By the way Mike this is Mike. Mike this is a bad look. This is a real bad look. Look at you.

Look at you. Seriously and I say this I've mixed so many of her games to actually watch her live. She's incredible. She had that first three at the end and then the second three and you were there Rich. I know.

It literally she's I don't care what anyone says she's changing the face of that game. But I don't think anybody's saying otherwise. A lot of people please there's people out there just. You did not ask us to go with you. I did.

Yeah I did. I'm just saying that this look of you and that hat with the look on your face as you're taking a picture of Kaitlyn Clark standing in front of you like this it's a bad it's not a great look for you. For what? Why? It's a little creepy.

Why? There were people all around me. Everybody was around with their phones out. I know but Mike you got caught on the broadcast that's why.

Yeah that's on Ion TV. I had like 20 people. The whole country saw this they're like who the hell is that guy?

They started they started calling up crypto saying somebody help Kaitlyn. By the way and then you're just sitting up there. I took that picture of you sitting up there. By the way there you go. There's the shot. See that's reverse. Yeah that's reverse. Reverse shot.

One way to say it. Where's the shot that you took up high? Of the shot I took up high where you look like my own bro. So you look like you're sitting in front of Satrials. There you go. Yeah. I mean literally you're planning your next high Satrials. That's right.

Like a Gabagool over here. Is that Robert Eiler sitting next to you? Is that the the Sopranos movie? No. Actually sitting next to you? TJ knew the guy that was sitting on the one side of me. But the three guys sitting on this side were YouTubers. Okay. Big YouTube guys. Okay. So you're all viral stars.

Yeah I mean. Mike did they put you in their videos so they could boost their engagement because you have so many followers. Okay.

How about Mike? I wanted you guys to come. You could have come with me.

Yeah you should have asked. So how about this? How about this is a shock of a story.

The Jefferson County attorney in Louisville, Kentucky dropping all charges against Scottie Scheffler. How about them apples huh? Imagine that. Didn't see that one coming. What a joke. Now listen we reserve judgment when it happened at the start you know. I had no idea what the hell happened.

Bunch of the videos that have come out. And then you know. Like this is laughable. So you know Scottie Scheffler has all charges dropped. That kind of happened to me one time guys.

Which is what? Was in back in Pittsburgh with a friend of mine and we're driving down the street in Oakland where Pitt is and there was something going on. A cop was sitting there and he's waving us but he's waving one way or pointing the other way. So me and my buddy we drove up close because we're like which way do we go? And he's waving us and we got up close to him and then he hits the car with a flashlight and says we tried to hit him. My friend who was driving got arrested.

Oh my goodness. For trying to hit a police officer. And I remember it was the day Ohio State played Penn State in football and my boy got one call and he called my apartment to find out the score.

Are you serious? And I don't I have to go back but Penn State. Penn State. You knew they probably couldn't score a point.

What is it? Was it the one year they scored a touchdown? So this was probably 96. Oh it's pretty James Franklin.

Okay so you should make the call. 96, 97. So Penn State was up by like 25 points. Can you imagine using one phone call from prison to call TJ to find out the score? I don't hate that. I don't hate that.

You don't hate that. All right let's have some positivity in the world right? Let's do it. Yes. As you know our friend Bill Walton told us to shine the light and be the light. I just love that phrase that he closed his handwritten note to me in closing a one thousand dollar check for the windshield that his chair shattered. What a story right?

Great. And a Katy Perry video in which the mountain was in it. I mean and by the way Kobayashi was in it too. Kobayashi. No and Joey Chestnut. Joey Chestnut was right behind me chewing into a hot dog. Joey Chestnut. Molly Shannon.

She was in that video too. Met her that day. Just a wild day in the life.

My goodness. So you know what I've decided to do? I've decided to be the light for many National Football League teams as we are here embarking on June of 2024. We're going to spend the next eight shows. One a day.

Eight different divisions. I'm going to be the light and shine the light on these teams with their best case scenarios for the upcoming 2024 season. This is a glass half full. I love it. Poured every single day. I'd like positivity. And drank it up like a milkshake.

I drink it up. Okay and I need the uh we're gonna start with the NFC West today. Okay best division football.

I don't know about that. Again I'm gonna still go AFC North. We're just going left to right. We're just gonna go or or bottom to the up or of the standing.

I don't know. Just chose the NFC West. And then we'll go through the entire NFC. West to east. And then we'll do the same thing east to west for uh for the AFC. How about that? We're making it up as we go along because we're just uh we're following the essence. Right?

Rich be the light. I am trying to for these four teams in the NFC West. And we'll start with the Arizona Cardinals. Their best case scenario.

Okay. Kyler Murray shows up as healthy as ever. As spry as spry as ever. And the youngster that they drafted fourth overall.

By sticking and picking. Rightfully so. Marvin Harrison Jr shows up in the manner in which so many expect him to show up. And he shines the light. And is such a remarkable connection. Unstoppable in the National Football League. That he and Murray have a connection right from jump. And that the running game is now opened up as well. James Connor shows up and is the touchdown maker that he has proven to be. Don't forget they added Trey Benson the rookie running back from Florida State. Let's see if he can come out and show up and make some contributions as a rookie at the running back position.

Which we've seen many folks do. Darius Robinson out of Missouri was also drafted in the first round. Let's see if Jonathan Gannon can go ahead and put this defense together. And a team that was in every single damn game pretty much last year. Shows up and shows out and makes the playoffs. And wins a playoff game. I think making the division round is maybe their best case scenario with all due respect. There are only in the history of the National Football League 12 coaches who have won a Super Bowl in their second year with the team.

Some of their names. Flores, Gibbs, Belichick, Gruden, Tomlin. It's a tough nut to crack. I don't know if Arizona is going to go from worst to Super Bowl winner. Let alone the Super Bowl. That's my best case scenario for the Arizona Cowboys. Yeah I think going from fourth overall to winning a playoff game. I think that is super glass hat full.

I like that. In terms of Super Bowl winners in their second year as a head coach with the team by the way. Some of them did it as a first-time head coach in their second year. Flores, Gibbs, Switzer, Billick, Gruden, Tomlin, Gary Kubiak are in that category. Doug Peterson as well. Bruce Arians did it in his second year but it wasn't you know his first gig overall with Tampa. There's only two coaches in the history of the NFL who won the Super Bowl in their first year as a head coach.

Don McCafferty of the Colts who won Super Bowl V after Don Shuler left and George Seifert after Bill Walsh retired. So that's a tough nut to crack for Mike McDonald the new head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. But let's just say he puts his stamp on things and the post-Pete era shows how this defense can play even tighter. They got Byron Murphy the kid out of Texas to stick right in the middle of the defensive line. Let's say he shows up and he shows out.

He's quite a beastly kid out of Austin there. Let's say Jackson Smith and Jigba along with Jake Bobo everybody okay. Let's say those guys take a step forward and Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf do their things and the running back room that's really deep as well.

Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet. Let's say they do their thing and Gino shows up like the guy that showed up two years ago. I think Seattle can win this division and win a couple playoff games. And their best case scenario would be maybe the NFC Championship game right? I like that. Yeah I think so. Like winning the division, winning 12 games, having the 12s. I want 12 just because that's a best case scenario for the 12s. Throwing that out there.

Yeah Gino finds the magic of two years ago and you know they have a great wide receiver core potentially too. And by the way this is a segment as I said built out of respect for Bill Walton. I am not high right now. I'm totally sober. You didn't get a contact high from Michael Kay? Not at all. He said that no. So best case scenario for the Los Angeles Rams, winning the Super Bowl.

Yeah. The team that made the wild card round last year and lost. Why can't they win the Super Bowl this year? Aaron Donald not being there at best case scenario. Aaron Donald sees what's going on and what's cooking. Number nine signs his new contract, feels paid, feels welcome, feels ready to roll.

This team offensively last year was terrific. My guy Blake Corum shows up and makes them even better. Lucky.

Damn straight. And Aaron Donald sees what's being cooked up and goes sitting there in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and goes you know what I kind of missed the game a little bit. And you know what?

I saw what Eric Weddle did in that Super Bowl winning season where I literally tapped my ring finger after sacking Joe Burrow when everybody knew I was going to try to do that. And he comes back and he plays all four playoff games and they win it all. It'll still be a shape. We know that. Best case scenario. Cooper Cup back to B. Kids that they drafted. With all those draft picks that they stopped effing. Show up.

Show out. And then obviously the best case scenario for the San Francisco 49ers. Brandon Ayuk signs and is happy. Debo Samuel is happy. McCaffrey doesn't get hurt for a single lick of a second.

George Kittle's still George. And Brock Purdy shows up yoked up and wins the MVP. And Nick Bosa and the rest of this defense, everybody stays healthy. And Kyle Shanahan pushes every right button.

There's not even a single question about his play calling. They win the toss and make the right decisions. They do all of it. It all works.

It finally all works. The 49ers, they might lose a couple here and there, but they'll still be the one seed. They'll still be the team to beat. They'll still be the guy. Brock Purdy wins the MVP. And they win the Super Bowl.

Wow. Every Niner fan. They're the betting favorite for the Super Bowl. So yes, this is the best case scenario. That's the best case scenario that it comes true. Like your Celtics win 60 games, make the finals. They are expected to go ahead and win the NFC again. And they not only do so, but win it all and say, if their best case scenario is to finally slay them a Holmes dragon, they get to do that and prevent them from being a three-peat champion.

The first ever. No doubt. How's that for the best case scenario for the 49ers? Am I missing anything on that front? For the 49ers? Yeah.

I don't know. No, I mean, Brock Purdy MVP. Yeah. I mean, he was a candidate there for a while last year. Right.

And they're happy to pay him 50 million bucks a year. And McCaffrey, 2000 total yards. Like that's all of it.

All of it. Did he get married this weekend? McCaffrey? Yeah. I think did he?

Did he really? I don't know. Is he coming up? I don't know. If that's the case, then everything's coming up.

I mean, he did. I get it. Okay. We're going to do that every single day. I like it. Positivity. Shine the light, be the light. There we go.

Shine the light, be the light. All right. Tony Khan's coming out here and I'm hoping he's got full mobility. I doubt it. How could he? A TK driver, huh?

Man, God bless him. Now, TK stands for Tony Khan, right? Yeah, indeed it does.

Okay. Did you call it that or is it being called that? I mean, it was named after a journalist before they hit Tony with it. So I was just like, well, you can't call it the Meltzer anymore.

You got to call us. Yeah, the Meltzer driver, right? That's what I was calling it during the draft. Yeah. But I mean, you know, I want to be accurate.

It's what I want to be. I say we updated it. The TK is 20 to one MVP. That is disrespectful. Well, you know, you're the leading charge of the disrespect for him. I was back on last year. Oh, I forgot.

I can't keep track. You can't clown the man and then jump on his bag. Like, come on guy. All right, let's take a break. Tony Khan coming out of the green room. Right now on the Rich Eisen show. He's back.

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Call click Granger dot com or just stop by the CEO GM and head of creative of AEW fresh off of the five year anniversary historic double or nothing pay per view event in Las Vegas, Nevada, here in advance of tonight's AEW dynamite live from the Kia forum just up the road here in L.A. 80s from time that you can watch live on TV as Tony Khan is here. Good to see you, Tony. Thank you, Rich. It's great to be back. Thank you, sir.

And it's round of applause worthy for sure. We just covered we just covered in our radio free but TV only segment that we should hit again a little bit here is that your your neck brace is off. Yes. Your your your freedom of movement is back.

Correct. My freedom of movement is back. And as I was just saying on Roku to bring it into the radio audience, I'm very grateful to you because you helped bring my recovery and the fact that I was in the neck brace into the public consciousness. And, you know, for those who don't know, I run a wrestling league called AEW. We're on TBS and TNT every week. We've got a show tonight on TBS Wednesday night. Dynamite.

Yes. I know a lot of people don't watch wrestling, but for those people who do, you know, to be in the NFL draft and have somebody of your stature, rich mention. Well, I was concerned for your welfare. You're sitting there in a neck brace. I've never seen an executive wearing a neck brace in the draft room. I mean, you are the chief football strategy officer of the Jacksonville Jaguars. I've not seen anybody in a draft room in a neck brace before.

This is like our Andy Kaufman moment, Rich. So what were you doing, Tony? What the heck were you doing in the ring?

What were you doing? Well, so what happened is Jack Perry, he started in AEW five years ago on our first show. His name is Jungle Boy. He's Hollywood royalty. He's the son of the late, great Luke Perry.

Yes, indeed. And Jack Perry has been with us since he was very young. And I've always had a great relationship with Jack. And there was a backstage incident. Jack went away for a while, almost on loan to New Japan Pro Wrestling, worked it out.

He had a visa. He was away from AEW. He did a great tour and really reestablished himself. I was excited to reinstate Jack into AEW. And the night before the draft, we met in the ring. I offered Jack his spot back. We shook hands. It was a great moment, or so I thought.

Then he punched me with a microphone in the stomach. And Matt and Nick, the Young Bucks, the AEW World Tag Team Champions, who famously wrestled Sting in his last ever match. They were really with us from the beginning of AEW.

They've been great friends of mine to this point. They helped me up, I thought, only to give me a spike pile driver. They renamed it the Tony Khan driver, the TK driver. I should have seen it coming. It had my name written all over it.

Yeah. And then what happened? Well, I was taken to the back.

I was evaluated. And then they told me, you know, you're injured. You need to stay in Jacksonville.

And these guys just ran wild on AEW. I was trying to maintain order from Jacksonville remotely while I worked. And of course, with the NFL draft, thankfully, I was able to work on the NFL draft.

We had a show live in Jacksonville on Saturday right after the draft. So NFL Films was following me around in the neck brace while I ran back and forth from like a speed dating episode or like the Boy Meets World episode where Cory is both with the wrestling show and trying to date Topanga. And it was like that. And I was like, you know, doing the undrafted free agency and going back and forth with AEW Collision, which was live after NBA playoffs. Of course, like one of those crazy things. Of course, it was the first time in AEW history they asked us to go on early because the Celtics Heat game was a blowout and they asked us to start 10 minutes early. So that was of all the days, you know, draft Saturday while I'm doing undrafted free agency, I had to run back over to Daley's place, start the show. It was something.

And NFL Films shot the whole thing. When are we seeing the contents of that? Hopefully soon.

I think they're putting together something. You know, last year, great chance to plug our friends here at Roku. Sure. The pick is in.

Oh, pick is in, my friend. Yes. Right.

This is synergy. Last year, Roku filmed what I believe is their biggest documentary ever, which was the pick is in. It was the 2023 NFL draft following around the Cowboys, the Panthers, the Colts and the Jaguars.

Right. And they were with us throughout the draft. And then, you know, coming out of the pick is in. They actually, the post-credits scene is I signed a player in undrafted free agency, Elijah Cooks. He was the only undrafted free agent that made the Jaguars.

And I'm with him on the phone. And then we go the following Wednesday to Baltimore and the crew came to AEW Dynamite. And this year we thought, let's bring AEW to Jacksonville.

So we did the whole thing around the draft, bookended the draft Wednesday and Saturday. Yeah. And I think it's going to make for good content. Dude.

Okay. Is this part of the pick is in for the next year? I hope so.

I hope we can do more with Roku. I'm not sure how the NFL films is going to. They shot it again. The pick is in is coming out again. Well, I hope that that's what it's going to be is because this would be really good footage for it. And the neck brace was. The neck is in. We can rename the documentary. This is the stuff that didn't make the Tom Brady roast. Speaking of the Kia Forum where the Tom Brady roast took place, AEW Dynamite is live there tonight and starts at 8 Eastern, five out here in Los Angeles.

You can watch it live on TBS. So what what what are you thinking about five years in? Are you where you want to be with AEW right now? It's a really exciting time. We've you know, when we started, we only had two hours of TV and we were only doing shows on TNT.

And now we're doing five hours Wednesday, Friday, Saturday on TBS and TNT. Right. And it's just expanded, grown so much. And it really the roster has grown and the fan base worldwide has grown. You know, the last time I saw you, we hadn't done our biggest accomplishment ever. We went last summer and set the world record for ticket sales and pro wrestling at Wembley Stadium.

Right. Eighty one thousand and thirty five tickets, more than any WrestleMania, more than any wrestling show ever has ever sold. And it's a big deal for us. And, you know, a lot of people don't know that AEW set that record. We're going back to Wembley Stadium this summer, August 25th, again, the same weekend, trying to make history again, do something special.

And I think when we started, we thought we'd do a lot of cool stuff. But that, to me, when we saw the packed Wembley Stadium, like when we have a Jaguars game or when I've been there with Fulham, it reminded me of the same size of crowd, you know, and I think I might be the only person across three different sports to have had franchises put over 80,000 people in there. Well, the pay-per-view all in again, you said it set records and it's great to see Jerry Jones is supporting you. That's what he's talking about.

And the Cowboys are going all in. Is that what he's referring to? Yeah. Yeah, I think so.

During your pay-per-view events? I hope that's what Jerry means. He's a good friend and that's the kind of plugs you want from your friends.

Yeah, I was exactly right. I mean, you want support from your colleagues in membership. Like you. You know what?

I mean, Jerry would probably mention your neck brace as well. So what's next? Like, what do you want to do next? You want to sign more people?

What do you got? What do you think? I think it's going to be a really big year for us. It's a huge time for AEW. You know, we're going into our media rights renewal. There's huge opportunities, like in streaming, which this is one of the great shows out there in streaming.

My favorite, my personal favorite. And we've got really big opportunities because we built this great library with, you know, about 250 episodes coming up now of AEW Dynamite. And we've done thousands of hours across AEW and another company.

I acquired Ring of Honor. So with that library, I think there's a huge opportunity to build something into a streaming service. We expanded our pay-per-view calendar this year. Now we're up to nine events, which is crazy from where we started. And the pay-per-view has continued to grow and grow. Last year was our biggest year ever. And I think this year's off to our best start ever. Probably the greatest night I've ever had in wrestling was this year in 2024, Sting's last match.

It was the greatest experience. In AEW, I would equate Sting's run to the recent run in films of Tom Cruise. Everybody who's pretty much ever seen a movie knows who Tom Cruise is. And if you've ever watched wrestling, you know Sting. Both of them kind of look very similar now to what they look like, you know, just close enough. And they've aged so well. And both of them decided in their 60s to become these crazy stuntmen and do all this wild stuff that they really didn't do when they were younger.

And probably both of them in the last five years did more crazy stuff than they had in the previous 25 combined. And Sting was so great for AEW. So at Revolution versus The Young Bucks, Sting teamed with Darby. He ended his run in AEW undefeated. And he was the sweetest man backstage. I think all the fans could see how much all the wrestlers respected Sting.

And to give him like the perfect sendoff from AEW, I thought it was awesome. What about poaching somebody from WWE? What about signing any free agents from there? Well, we've done well. You know, we just brought in the brand new TBS champion who's going to appear on AEW tonight.

Mercedes Monet, who's a former champion in WWE. We brought in some international stars that I think are some of the top stars. We also had, to me, one of the best free agents we could get, the rated R superstar Adam Copeland. He was supposed to be appearing tonight at the Forum and he had a big role in the show tonight.

It's been one of those long weeks for me. I've been doing rewrites and up all night working because Adam was going to be a big part of the show. He's the TNT champion as it stands right now.

And he jumped off the top of the cage at Double or Nothing. And Adam's a huge part of what we do. I wasn't expecting him to be out with a fractured leg. Right. So that's probably one of the biggest free agents you can get. And he's come in in the past year. I think in the future we'd be very open to that if there's people that want to come to AEW.

And I think there will be people that want to come here because right now I say this is where the best wrestle because I believe we have the best roster and that's our mindset. You know, I think we've had so far this year three for three on pay-per-view. They've all been really great. It's a great run for us, not unlike the great three for three run I saw you have recently. I was watching the show and you had Jerry Seinfeld on and it was one of the best interviews I've ever seen. You're nice Tony. And I'm sitting here and I'm looking at the platform and the whole thing and it's like the whole set is now immortalized by Jerry. I have not made any changes.

No, that has not happened. Yeah, I'm glad you didn't listen to suggestions. And then on Saturday Night Live to hear talk about you and the show. That was awesome. And then to see what the Tom Brady roast. It was awesome. And you know, I thought that was like the coolest three things I saw probably ever for somebody in a week. And now, you know, I think like I said, we're on a great run in AEW, but nobody's going to touch a run you've been on.

You're such a charmer Tony Khan. But I mean, it's not like the NFL where you can't mention names. Is there is a tampering or anything like that sort of thing? It's like, I think it's the same mindset where it's like, I don't want to try to tamper and do those things.

I try to keep it classy. And I really have a reputation for honesty and I really want to be a fair businessman. But it's, you know, the wrestling business is a really cutthroat business.

I mean, obviously you can get TK Driver. I mean, you know, Becky Lynch is a free agent within a week. So is that a name that you'd be interested? Well, it's, I mean, again, you just, you know, you, you invoked the tampering word, the T word, OK, but TJ is over there.

Talk about the players who are here. That's right. You go, well, TJ is over there. You, you, you would advocate for something like that. I mean, she's one of the biggest stars on the planet Earth. So anyone who has any type of wrestling company should be making that phone call there because she brings a huge, huge fan base. Absolutely.

Massive star power. OK, Tony, Tony Khan here on The Rich Eisen Show. All right. You know, in the few minutes I have left with you here, I do want to hit on a couple of things going on with the Jacksonville Jaguars, including your former kicker now on the Washington commanders, Brandon McManus, accused of doing all sorts of awful stuff on a team plane on a flight to London. What, what's your, your comment on that or your, your approach plan? Well, the team, the team made a statement about it and there's not much I can say, but I think it's, you know, something they're looking into. But yeah, I can't really say much about it, Rich. OK. And it's something that, you know, I assume you've been on a flight, the flight to London with the team or anything like that?

I mean, I was not there. OK. And the last time I took the trip with the team was about 10 years ago. OK, so you're saying the team is looking into this right now? OK. And your quarterback appears to be in line for a new contract. What's your, what's the current approach with Trevor Lawrence for the Jacksonville Jaguars right now, Tony? Trevor Lawrence is somebody who's coming to Jacksonville Jaguars franchise and really, I think, changed the city. I mean, people have rallied around Trevor.

He's changed the team. He's a leader on and off the field. And the success we've had with Trevor, I think we can have even more success with him. And I think he's one of the top quarterbacks in the league and he's only going to keep getting better and better. So we definitely want Trevor to be here as long as he's playing football. We hope it's with the Jaguars. And is it something that, that your, your, your general manager, Trent Baalke, is already on or what, what is your general approach? Because the reason why I ask this is signing somebody sooner before the market gets bigger is an approach that some teams take, others do not.

What, what is your philosophy on that front, Tony? I think that with Trevor, you have to absolutely lock up a player like that. And I, I know that we're talking to him and there's, you know, Trent's having good conversations with him and my dad's having good conversations with Trevor. And we all want him to be a Jaguar for a very long time. I think since Doug Peterson arrived at the Jaguars, so many great things have happened. And Doug is the leader of this team and with Trevor on the field with Doug together, the success they've had, it's been a lot better than anything we've done in Jacksonville, even long before my dad had bought the team. And I think we can continue winning games.

And last year, down the stretch, we had some injuries and some things that did not go our way. And I definitely think Doug and Trevor and the whole team are going to be in a really good place going into this offseason. And like I said, we want Trevor to be in Jacksonville a long time. Yeah, I was talking about that with the guys here yesterday, that when I did meet with your team prior to the game against the Bills, I think in, in Tottenham last year, and both, everybody, Trevor Lawrence, Doug Peterson and Christian Kirk were talking about their relationship together. And I thought Christian Kirk going down was maybe the worst injury of them all. You know, I know Trevor was definitely dinged up.

But he got hurt for the rest of the season, essentially, in the game that Trevor went down with a with an ankle injury, looked terrible. That, that was the crusher, because I think they talk about the chemistry between your quarterback and Christian Kirk more so than anybody else on that team. I completely agree with that.

I think you're completely right. And that's what I've been saying to really, Christian Kirk's a huge part of what we do. But, you know, we have to come together as a team. And I do think everybody rallying together and working together, you know, when a player goes down, we still have to win games, we're all accountable.

But Christian Kirk's one of our top players. And I do think when you look at the prior season, and everything went our way, and we had all these great comebacks, you know, the 2022 season is such an amazing memory. You know, we set the record for home comebacks, and really were the comeback kids, and then took it into the playoffs. And we were down 27 points. And when we got it to 20 at halftime, I looked at Trent, and I said, I still think we're gonna win. And the fact we we've had nothing go our way in the first half, and the fact we cut it to 20, and we're at home, and we've been having all these comebacks, and we set the record for double digit home comebacks.

So that was the biggest one of all. And I think that the following season, like you said, with Christian Kirk, and some of the other injuries that happened, we didn't want all the games down the stretch. But I really believe Doug and the staff he's put together, and this roster, we should win a lot of games, and I think we will. Yeah, Josh Allen, and getting him in the fold. I was also so impressed with his desire to be great. The things that he was saying.

He brought, I think he brought his own hyperbaric chamber with him over to London. I mean, and he was talking about his, his family and his dedication to the craft. We were all like blown away by him. You know, yeah, he's a good dude. Josh is fantastic. Josh Allen is really great.

And that was one of the really important things we did was lock Josh Allen up for sure. All right, before I let you go, when I did give you the shout out during the draft in your in your neck brace, I did say through the television screen, I would like that neck brace, I would like you to sign it. And I would like to auction it off for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Yes. And you indicated a 100% yes. And is that is that the neck brace that's in the chair right next?

That is the neck brace. And I'll tell you what, Rich, I'm gonna sign it. And I'm going to be the one to buy the auction. And I'm going to keep it here at the show.

And I will buy it for $100,000. Wow. To St. Jude's. And for you in the show, and let's keep the neck brace here. And is that okay?

Yes. Beyond. And it is beyond beyond your generosity is overwhelming. And I thank you, my God, what's on behalf of AEW and for AEW and the Rich Eisen show, I would gladly put $100,000 into St. Jude's and run rich run. And I think, Rich, what you do for St. Jude's with run rich run is one of the best things anybody in football does. And I respect the heck out of it. And that's why on behalf of AEW, I'd like to sign this neck brace and keep it here with all your great memorabilia. And then I'll donate $100,000. All right, here we go. Sharpie.

Let's do it. Selecting the southpaw. Putting his Tony Khan on it. Yeah. The TK driver. The AEW.

AEW. That's a Brad Hart reference. Very good. For TJ. I don't know if TJ can go like that. There he is. Yeah, he likes that.

That's fantastic. By the way, ask TJ about his shirt. There it is. TJ, go sit down.

Nice shirt, TJ. Please. There it is. Wow. This is what helped him survive the TK driver.

It is game used, if you will. Thank you. God bless you.

And on behalf of everyone at St. Jude, bless you. That's incredible. Absolutely. Thank you. There it is.

How about that? Thank you, Tony. About the shirt, Rich, this is Kazucho Kada. He was basically the biggest star in New Japan. He was as big as any wrestler could ever get over in Japan.

But of course, to really make it big in wrestling, you've got to come over to America. And that's what Kazucho Kada did. He aligned themselves with the elite and the young bucks. So I don't know how happy that made people. As a matter of fact, Tony, I think it was Kada's idea to have them put you in the TK driver.

She may want to talk to him about that a little bit. Yeah, he was he was the one who probably signaled to those guys, like, let's do something worse to him and give him the thumbs up to put me up. And he is, like T.J. said, probably the greatest free agent wrestler ever out of Japan. And he signed with us recently.

He's the AEW continental champion. And, you know, I'm not a big fan of what the young bucks did to me with the neck brace, but I am glad that something good came of it with AEW and the Rich Eisen Show and Run Rich Run coming together. And it is my pleasure to donate one hundred thousand dollars on behalf of AEW to St. Jude's. Thanks to you, Rich. Thank you. Thank you. You're a really good man, Tony Khan. Everybody should check out AEW Dynamite tonight from the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, California, 8 Eastern Time.

And you could watch that live on TBS. Bless you. Say hi to your fam. Say hi to your coach and your GM and everybody back there in Duval. I will. My dad loves you, so I will tell him to say hi. Right back at him. Right back at him.

AEW right here. We're going to keep this on the set. And on behalf of everyone at St. Jude's, bless you. Thank you so much. God bless you. Well, we're back with more in a moment.

Wow, that was awesome. What's up, everyone? It's Reality Steve, your number one source for all things Bachelor Nation and reality TV. Every day I'm giving you the behind the scenes juice and your info on all your Bachelor Nation stories and also interviewing some of your favorite reality stars.

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Just search B-L-E-A-V on YouTube or wherever you listen. Afford Anything talks about how to avoid common pitfalls, how to refine your mental models and how to think about how to think. Paula, while certainly you can mess up on a million dollars a year, it is far less likely than it is on 30,000. $30,000 a year. Right. I would meet wonderful people that were struggling with a budget that was super tight.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. I'm so overwhelmed. That was so unbelievable. I did not expect that. I knew that he was coming with the neck brace and that he was willing to sign it and help send it for a website to auction off for charity. But for him to say, I'm going to sign it, you get to keep it here and it's $100,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

He's buying it. We all like went beyond overwhelming. But we almost done. That was pretty stunning. Beyond overwhelmed and appreciative. And you have no idea.

Well, I mean, you probably do. How much that helps and how many lives he literally just saved with that. Absolutely. That one gesture and one stroke of his Sharpie to put that on on the neck brace. And immediately we all thought, where do we put it? Brockman? Brockman.

Bless you, sir. You had the idea. We have the first item we've ever, we ever had placed on this set. Chris Long, our major donor, Domo and creator, our Lord, for so many years at DirecTV. The first thing he did is he had a hall of fame bust made of me.

So the second day we did the reveal. Right. With Marcus Allen and Marshall Falk.

And Marshall Falk here. Right. We had it like the bust was revealed. We pulled off. It was just like they do in Canton. We had the the blanket over there. Boom. Reveal.

It is off to the side. And we put a hat that Suzy got from HBO years ago for a cowboy hat for Deadwood that we've had every single individual who's been on Deadwood, who's been here. We've had about seven actors and actresses all combined. Kristen Bell, Tim Oliphant, Ian McShane, right?

Jerry McCready. We have them sign that hat. If you've been on Deadwood with your favorite curse word on it, it is now working.

It has the neck brace. That's amazing. It's so good. Brockman called me over and he's, it took him like 10 seconds to get it out because you guys were talking and I didn't want to interrupt, but I was like, we have to put it on the bus. It looks like my boss got a TK driver.

Beautiful. John brings his skewed sense of humor. Jeff brings tips to cut strokes off your next round. Together, it's those weekend golf guys.

They'll pay a lot of money to PXG and Tylus and Callaway. How many yards do you think you're going to pick up with that extra driver? I think I can get an extra five to 10. What if I give you a 15 to 20?

You pay me more. Jeff Smith teaches on a sliding scale. Those weekend golf guys, the podcast part of the Believe Network. Just search BLEAV on YouTube or wherever you listen.