AEW fans in Canada have been patiently waiting for a long time to see the company host live events in their country and according to the latest word from Tony Khan himself, it is very close to becoming a reality.
Speaking to the Toronto Star, Khan says that AEW is very close to coming to Canada for live shows. He said, “I think we have a chance to really build a strong presence, not only what we’ve established on television with TSN, but also with live events for the fans. We have a lot of great Canadian wrestlers and I’m excited about the possibility of our live events here because we’ve had great success on TV here.”
During his Forbidden Door media call, Khan said that Toronto would likely be the first Canadian city that gets an AEW event due to the large size of the city along with its deep ties to wrestling in general.
But broadening out the scope of possible locations, Tony said “I have to say when it comes to Alberta, Calgary and Edmonton would both be great homes for an AEW event. We’ve worked very closely with Dr. Martha Hart and the Owen Hart Foundation, and it was a real honor to have Dr. Martha Hart, and Oje Hart, and Athena Hart here in AEW, representing Owen Hart’s legacy.”
Continuing on, Tony said “I neglected to mention Montreal, which is a legendary wrestling city and I should’ve said it. It was an omission by me that I did not mean to make, but I was just naming cities off the top of my head on a long day.”
Of course, some of their top stars are from Winnipeg (Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega) so Tony could not exclude them. He said “It’s one of the first cities you have to mention with AEW, with Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega coming from there and them being two of the great world champions in AEW, and two of the great Canadian stars, and two of the great stars in all the world of wrestling in Jericho and Omega. Jericho has competed extensively in Alberta; we would love to go there. I think that would be a great place for us to go.”
While its unclear when exactly AEW plans to enter Canada, Tony made it clear that he hopes for it to be as soon as logistically possible.
Thanks to Wrestling Inc. for providing transcriptions of the media call.
