Ahead of Wednesday’s historic AEW Dynamite Spring Break Thru episode live on TBS and Max, from the MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston, Tony Khan spoke with The Takedown on SI to discuss the event and WCW Nitro’s influence on the product.
AEW will make history, as the April 16, 2025 episode of Dynamite, which will be number 289 will make it the longest-running pro wrestling show in primetime to have aired on TNT and TBS. When WCW Nitro ended on March 26, 2001 that was episode No. 288.
“I’m a big fan, and I grew up watching the shows, and Nitro was a huge part of my childhood…and long before Nitro, I watched WCW. And I wish I could say I watched it long after, but that was kind of the end of the run. And I certainly learned a lot watching those shows.”
Khan went on to say that some of the most exciting wrestlers came out of the WCW Nitro era.
“I think it’s where some of the most exciting, high flying, athletic wrestlers of all time broke in and broke in on TV and became mainstream TV stars across America. And those are some of the biggest wrestlers of all time now. And I think it really helped usher in a faster-paced, more exciting style of wrestling. And I do think that over the years of Nitro, some of the most exciting moments and memories in pro wrestling happened on the show. So, tons of positive memories of WCW Nitro from growing up.”
Dynamite currently features former WCW (WWE talent from years past) Chris Jericho, who was the company’s inaugural champion. In addition, Dustin Rhodes, who is the current ROH World Tag Team and World Six-Man Tag Team Champion the show. Dynamite has also seen appearances by Sting, Paul Wight, Arn Anderson and former WCW President Eric Bischoff. Khan noted that AEW has similarities, especially with Tony Schiavone on color-commentary on Dynamite and calling the action on Collision.
“I think there’s a lot of great influence [from] WCW. The most clear one to me is that the icon in WCW and our legend, our undefeated star, certainly the person we revere so much in AEW is Sting. And I think there’s a great shared history there. There’s a great shared history across TBS and TNT. Tony Schiavone being a key voice in both products, a lot of similarities.”
Khan also notes that how difficult to write episodic pro wrestling each week and respects everything it took to keep WCW Nitro on television for 288 episodes.
“I really, really, absolutely had so much respect for everything that it took to put Nitro on the air and keep Nitro on the air for all those years. And that’s why I think this is a really important milestone. It’s amazing what Nitro achieved. And to be on TNT for 288 weeks, I know how hard that is firsthand, it’s really hard…it’s a celebration of everything, and really all the wrestling. Looking back, over fifty years of wrestling on TBS specifically, and 30 years of pro wrestling on TNT, and now AEW is a huge part of that conversation. And this is a big milestone for TBS and AEW on Wednesday.”
Wrestleview’s Alex Kahrs will have live coverage of tonight’s Dynamite, beginning at 8:00 pm ET/5:00 pm PT.