Tony Khan holds AEW’s Jacksonville home in high regard.
AEW President Tony Khan appeared on 1010XL in Jacksonville to promote AEW Dynamite’s return to Daily’s Place on Wednesday, the first event in Jacksonville since the company’s “Homecoming” taping in August. Khan spoke about what Daily’s Place meant to AEW during the pandemic and said that the venue will always be part of the company’s touring plans.
“That [New Year’s Eve Rampage] card, I’m going to keep a bit of a mystery until Wednesday night, but what I will tell you is the Wednesday night card is absolutely stacked. There’s a classic wrestling show called ‘One Night Stand,’ the original ‘One Night Stand’ is where WWE went back and paid tribute to ECW in the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. And Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, legendary wrestling venue,” Khan stated, “I do feel like Daily’s Place has really cemented its own place as a legendary wrestling venue now with all of the great shows that have taken place there.
“People became conditioned to see it and it’s going to be surreal to go back to it this week, and it’s also going to be surreal for CM Punk to walk into Daily’s Place for the first time and appear on television, for Bryan Danielson to walk in and appear for the first time. And then for Adam Cole and Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly to come in for the first time, three wrestlers that were stars for our previous competition in NXT. We used to be head-to-head with them on Wednesdays every week and they were the enemy and now they’re here. Not only are they here,” Khan said, “but this is going to be their first-ever match as a trio in AEW. It’s Kyle O’Reilly’s debut in AEW period, he’s never wrestled here, but his first match is Wednesday in Daily’s Place.
“And to have all of these stars coming and to have Sting in AEW and returning to Daily’s Place this week, a lot of the biggest names in pro wrestling,” Khan explained, “we’ve built this all from the ground up here in Jacksonville and now we’ve toured the world, we’ve sold out buildings in New York City, Arthur Ashe Stadium, sold out the United Center in Chicago, and now we get to come back to Jacksonville, our home where it all began, so it’s really a perfect situation.”
Tony Khan also spoke about how having the former “Undisputed” trio debut in Jacksonville is a fitting moment, then stressed how important AEW having a presence in Jacksonville meant to the city and the company itself.
“It’s very fitting that their first match ever [together in AEW] would be here in Jacksonville, the long-time home of AEW. So, not just for the local fans is this going to be special, but we’ve really made Jacksonville and Daily’s Place a national home for these pro wrestling shows. And now for fans all over the world — not just in America, but fans across the planet — in Europe, we have a huge presence in England where we are the most-watched wrestling company in the UK. In Canada, very often we are the top company, we’ve got great presence all over the world and Daily’s Place in Jacksonville is known as the home of these shows,” Khan said.
“We were in Jacksonville through the pandemic for 15 months every single week and now when these big pro wrestlers make their debut in Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, that’s going to be felt all over the world and it’s a really big deal. As the company has grown and our profile has grown, this presence we have in Jacksonville is really important to us and it’s really important to me,” Khan added, “so we’re always going to keep Daily’s Place in Jacksonville on our touring calendar and I always want to have big events and big moments here.”
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