Tony Khan and Chris Jericho know that licensed music has paid off in a big way for All Elite Wrestling… even if they don’t always get the song they want.
Tony Khan and Chris Jericho took part in a post-show media scrum after AEW Double Or Nothing concluded, and each respective session saw them fielding questions about the importance of music on AEW TV. Khan said they will continue to use songs if it’s the right situation and looked back on the company’s successes with licensed tracks so far.
“As it comes [up]. It’s like trades in sports, and when you make a trade or a transfer, it takes willing parties on multiple sides. You can’t just want to buy a song, you have to get responses and you never know who’s going to bite on it. Sometimes they’ll make—sometimes people don’t even respond and they wait a long time to get back to you. In some cases, you’re really far apart on money, so we’ve had really great dealings with publishers and songwriters and singers, it’s been great. It’s really added a lot, and like you said, Jungle Boy and [Jon Moxley], what a great match they had, Mox and Eddie [Kingston], with the Young Bucks tonight. That’s another great match on a great show, I think. For them, that was a great moment, and Jungle Boy, obviously, for the crowd, and Orange Cassidy.
“[There’s] so many great [songs] and really I got into it when even late last year, when I really wanted to get the [Cinderella video] for Kenny [Omega] and Hangman [Adam Page] and I got the rights for ‘Don’t Know What You Got (‘Til It’s Gone)’. And then also, to go back to Brodie [Lee] and how much we miss Brodie, I worked when he was not in good health to get the rights to [Tom Waits] ‘Ol’ 55’ and I was hoping we didn’t have to use it, but we did, and it was really important and that was a big, important one too. We’ve done a lot with music and I’ll continue to try and make strides and do great things with music.”
Read More: Tony Khan Says He Drew Inspiration From South Park For The Kenny Omega/Adam Page Video Package
Chris Jericho was also asked by WrestleZone’s Dominic DeAngelo about The Inner Circle’s ability to constantly reinvent themselves on AEW TV and how their image was important in setting the tone. During his reply, Jericho mentioned that their latest iteration was inspired by ‘Back In Black’ and although they tried to license the famous AC/DC song, they never even got a call back about it.
“We actually even tried to license ‘Back In Black’ by AC/DC and they wouldn’t even call us back. The next day, I saw it on [an] Applebee’s [commercial], so I guess Applebee’s is more AC/DC friendly than we are,” Jericho joked, “but that was the idea, ‘Back In Black’ is the attitude, ‘Back In Black’ is the look and if you watch our show, we still dressed almost completely in black. People relate to that and they suddenly understand that this is different. Every time you turn heel or babyface you should do something different, a different look that way people understand, ‘oh this is a different guy’ and this is a different Inner Circle.”
