• “I have more money than they do” – Tony Khan Sends A Message To WWE
WWE will air a “Supersized SmackDown” tonight on FS1 (not FOX), which will air for 2.5 hours.
SmackDown will be going head-to-head with a live edition of AEW Rampage from 10 PM EST to 10:30 PM EST.
After this news became public, AEW President Tony Khan announced that he can’t wait for Rampage to beat SmackDown (which is WWE’s #1 show right now).
This led to WWE announcing that the last 30 minutes of SmackDown will be commercial free.
Tony then decided to add a “Buy In” show for Rampage on YouTube (a pre-show), where the main match would be Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki. This YouTube show will air at 9 PM EST tonight, during SmackDown, as Tony hopes to have the AEW fans watch this and then tune in straight for Rampage, and not watch SmackDown.
During an interview with NY Post, Khan had the following to say about WWE airing the last 30 minutes of SmackDown commercial free:
“We can take the commercials out of it. If you want to take the commercials out of it, I can do that too. It doesn’t seem very civil, but I have more money than they do, so I can afford to do that longer than they can. But that’s how we make money at the end of the day, so I was surprised when they took those out.”
For those who don’t know, Shahid Khan (Tony’s father) invested $100 million to help start All Elite Wrestling, and Shahid is richer than Vince McMahon.
SmackDown, which usually draws more than 2 million viewers every week on FOX, draws less than 1 million viewers on FS1. This is the reason behind WWE pulling out all the stops to make sure it draws more viewers than a live episode of Rampage, especially given the fact that the die-hard AEW fans and anti-WWE fans will do whatever they can to help AEW win tonight.
Also, Tony knows AEW has a very good chance of defeating WWE tonight, so he isn’t holding back either.
Also Read: AEW Full Gear 2021 Full Card Leaked – 2 Former WWE Champions Set To Collide?
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• ON THIS DAY IN WWF HISTORY (October 14, 1996) – WWF Monday Night RAW
On this day in 1996, the World Wrestling Federation aired another episode of their weekly TV show ‘WWF Monday Night RAW’.
It was broadcasted from the Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania and featured pre-taped matches, interviews & storyline segments on the road to the ‘WWF In Your House 11: Buried Alive’ PPV.
Here’s the match-card:
1. Vader vs. Phinneas I. Godwinn
2. Jake Roberts vs. Jerry Lawler
3. Freddie Joe Floyd vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
4. Faarooq Asad vs. Alex Porteau
5. Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin
