Below are a couple of top WWE & AEW news stories of the day, involving Roman Reigns & Tony Khan.
• With his return at SummerSlam, Roman Reigns is now a babyface for the first time in 4 years.
According to Fightful Select, WWE Officials are expecting Reigns to do insane merch sales numbers, especially after all his custom championship belts were sold out within a couple of hours after his return. Each belt was priced at $600, and with all 1,316 belts selling out, the merchandise brought in almost $800,000 in revenue.
Reigns has been WWE’s top merch seller for a decade and WWE Officials expect his numbers to rise even more under his new “OTC” babyface run.
The Tribal Chief’s return garnered over 100 million social media views, making it the biggest SummerSlam social media moment ever.
Reigns will appear on this Friday’s SmackDown and is being advertised for next week’s show as well.
WATCH: Stephanie McMahon N!p-Slip (Wardrobe Malfunction) – Part 2:
• During an interview on Q101’s Brian & Kenzie Morning Show, AEW President Tony Khan addressed his past comments of All Elite Wrestling being under constant attack by critics.
Here’s what Khan said:
“I think that’s a legitimate thing I said, and it is a challenging thing to be the challenger brand, but it’s also a great opportunity. Bringing wrestling back to TBS and TNT every week means a lot; it’s a great American tradition.
I’ve really communicated that very well—that it means a lot to me and to the American people to have wrestling on TBS and TNT every week. To be on TBS, I don’t take it for granted. We’ve done over 250 episodes now on Wednesday nights, and doing this every week on TV is something that I’m very well aware of. It’s a great thing for everybody that we can do this for all the people who work here and for all the fans.
Pro wrestling is a 52-week-a-year business. It’s a very, very challenging grind, and I love it. I think that it is difficult to be the challenger brand, and there are great examples of this.
I think Voices of Wrestling, in particular, has done a great job covering these things in general, and I think it will come under scrutiny for almost anything I say.
I think AEW is a great company, and there are a lot of people out there who don’t want to see it succeed and spend a lot of time trying to stop it. But that’s the fight that basically every challenger wrestling promotion has fought for decades, and it’s great standing here right now.”
