All Elite Wrestling CEO and General Manager Tony Khan has led AEW into a major television milestone: the 200th episode of AEW Dynamite, which airs live on TBS Wednesday, August 2nd, at 8pm ET.

AEW is in the midst of a wildly successful summer 2023 with the launch of a second flagship show, AEW Collison on Saturday nights, a tour of Canada, and the return of CM Punk. AEW Dynamite 200 not only features a loaded wrestling card, but it also starts the build toward the biggest event in AEW's history: AEW All In London, with over 77,000 tickets already sold in Wembley Stadium.

Related: AEW All Access Season 2 "Bodes Well," Says Boss Tony Khan

Screen Rant had the absolute pleasure to chat with Tony Khan about AEW Dynamite 200, AEW All In London, the bromance between MJF and Adam Cole, and CM Punk calling himself the real-world champion.

Tony Khan Talks AEW Dynamite 200 & The Future Of All Elite Wrestling

Screen Rant: 200 episodes of AEW Dynamite is an incredible achievement. What does this milestone mean to you personally?

Tony Khan: AEW Dynamite, our 200th show, is a huge milestone for me professionally and personally. Professionally, this is such an important occasion. 200 episodes is considered a great achievement in television. We've been doing this every week for years, and for a lot of different people here at AEW, it's been so much work over the years to get to this point, and it feels very rewarding because we're at such an exciting time for the business right now.

Starting tonight, we have four more episodes of Wednesday Night Dynamite, four more episodes of Friday Night Rampage, and four more episodes of Saturday Night Collision to build to AEW All In at Wembley Stadium. This is one of the biggest events in the history of the world of wrestling. We've sold over 70,000 tickets for over $9-million dollars. And there's still plenty of time to continue sales. This is the biggest wrestling show in the history of Europe for box office receipts. And it stands next to only a couple of shows in the history of the world of professional wrestling. There are only a couple in years past of the highest-grossing WrestleMania events that have ever stood next to the show. And when it's all said and done, this could end up very well being - it's very close right now - being not only the biggest wrestling show in the history of Europe but, as it stands right now, it could end up being the biggest, highest grossing wrestling show in the history of the world.

I believe the tickets sold as of now is about 77,000. I'm sure you're gonna break the record. Now, I also trust that you're setting up a card worthy of what will likely be a record-breaking crowd at Wembley Stadium.

Tony Khan: Yes, it's gonna be an amazing card. And I felt all along that with this huge stage tonight on TBS. AEW Dynamite 200, given that [we are] four weeks out from Wembley Stadium, starting tonight, it feels like this is the perfect place to begin announcing the card. And it's why I've always wanted this to be the date. We begin from here out, from tonight going forward, announcing more information about the card for this event that has captured the attention of the world. So it starts on TBS tonight, building towards this great card.

We've had some really exciting events that led us into this position in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, we had the AEW Dynamite Blood and Guts card in Boston. That was episode 198 of Dynamite. It was a huge success and a key step on this path. This past week, we had a massive AEW Collision in Hartford. It was the most viewership we've had since the debut of that show, and it was one of the top shows on TV. Of course, Blood and Guts was the number-one show on TV. And all our shows recently, with Dynamite and Collision, have all been either number one or number two on cable week-in and week-out recently. And the Collision episode this week was so important, given what was happening on that program, including MJF and Adam Cole challenging FTR for the World Tag Team Championship.

I'm glad you brought up Adam Cole and MJF. They are the hottest story in AEW right now. It's really taken on a life of its own. I'm incredibly invested in it, and the whole double clothesline thing. I just love it. Can you tell me a little bit about how that came about and have you had to adjust it given how fans love it and how much it's taken off?

Tony Khan: It's amazing how far the relationship between Adam Cole and the AEW World Champion MJF has come in these past few months. I'm so happy that there are fans all over the world activated by their tag team Better Than You, Bay Bay. And they've now got fans clamoring in anticipation to see their dreaded double clothesline. It's something that we've had really high expectations for. It's something that had been put in a prominent position on AEW TV and the fans have rallied around it. It's something we expected to be very successful, yet has succeeded beyond any expectations.

From a creative standpoint, you've been running AEW Dynamite since the beginning. Do you have a vision for Dynamite? And how do you apply that vision to making matches and what makes it onto the show?

Tony Khan: It's a great question. I think about AEW all the time. But I also really appreciate that there are fans all over the world who are consumed by AEW. There are fans that think about wrestling all the time and are brainstorming about AEW. And I think that's awesome. I have been a wrestling fan for most of my life. And I really appreciate that there are people that spend so much time thinking about wrestling and dreaming about it, and I try to stay engaged with the fans. There are a number of great ways to get feedback from the fans, whether it's the fans in the arena or the fans online, and certainly, TV viewership is also a great indication of what's driving the fans who watch the shows.

For AEW Collision, your second flagship show, does that show have its own vision? Because it really does feel distinct, and it's quickly finding its own groove. It feels like the same company but different flavors.

Tony Khan: I really love both shows. I think there are a number of distinct choices that we've made that distinguish between Dynamite and Collision so they're different shows. They're all for the AEW fans. But certainly, there are some differences in the presentation that are deliberate choices we make on Saturday nights on TNT for AEW Collision versus the presentation on Wednesday Night Dynamite on TBS. And I love both shows. And I think we've struck a cool balance between them.

There's a vibe on Collision that feels different from Dynamite that I really dig. It almost feels like back in 2002 when the Smackdown Six were having these incredible matches, from Edge and Eddie Guerrero, and Kurt Angle, that group. It kind of feels like that vibe again on Saturday nights.

Tony Khan: I really appreciate you saying that. Thank you.

On Collision, CM Punk opened up that red bag, and he pulled out his AEW World Championship belt, and then he spray-painted it with an X. Now he's calling himself the real world champion. Is that championship officially recognized?

Tony Khan: What that belt represents is the lineal title, which is true that CM Punk was never pinned or submitted for. The title was vacated - by me! - on AEW Dynamite last September and MJF is the recognized AEW World Champion. However, CM Punk has a claim to be the lineal champion, as it's considered in boxing or in MMA and other sports.

The situation takes on a lot of similarities to 32 years ago when Ric Flair arrived [in the WWF] claiming to be the real world heavyweight champion, and he had never been pinned for that belt. Under different circumstances but [with] a similar result, [Flair's] belt was vacated by [WCW's] chief executive. And then Ric Flair proclaimed himself to be the real world champion. I thought it was very fitting that it was actually 32 years to the day, exactly 32 years this past weekend, the Collision episode on Saturday was actually 32 years to the day, from the first time Ric Flair was ever referred to as the real world champion. And in doing so, that is part of why it fits so well, in my opinion, this week and why this is the perfect week for CM Punk to proclaim himself the real world champion.

And I think it's similar to the situation when I was a kid where the fans who watched the show, they knew who the real world champion of the company was. I think, watching AEW, it's very clear. MJF is the AEW World Champion. But CM Punk has this claim to be the real world champion. It's a valid, in some ways, claim, and it reminds me of Ric Flair's claim. Both belts had been vacated and neither was recognized by the company on television as the champion. Everybody watching the show knew who the champion was at the time. At that point in 1991, the champion was Hulk Hogan, and in 2023, today, the champion of this company is MJF. But just as in 1991, you had Ric Flair circling saying he's the real world champion, now, today, you have CM Punk circling and saying he's the real world champion. When both of them are basing that claim on the fact that they had not ever been pinned or submitted for the championship in the ring, and they refused to accept that it was vacated.

AEW started four years ago in order to give wrestling fans an alternative. 200 episodes of Dynamite later, do you still see AEW as an alternative? With all of your success, and now Wembley Stadium with those bragging rights, is the vision for AEW evolving?

Tony Khan: The vision is expanding for AEW. I believe we are always going to be an alternative, in some ways, to a company that has been a worldwide industry leader for decades. But there are places where we are storming the battlefield and claiming major victories for AEW. In the United Kingdom, AEW is now the number one wrestling promotion. We are number one on TV by far every week. AEw has the most viewers of any wrestling promotion thanks to our great partnership with ITV, which is the strongest commercial network in the kingdom. And we're also promoting the biggest wrestling event in the history of the UK, AEW All In London. It's the highest gross for ticket sales in the history of not only the UK but all of Europe. And one of the biggest shows in the history of the world. I think as AEW continues to grow [and] expand into new places, we can strengthen the company.

I also think it's great for AEW to maintain our challenger spirit and that chip on our shoulder with everything that we do. When I launched this promotion, I had meetings with network executives before I signed a single wrestler, and frankly, before wrestlers even were entertaining the possibility of coming here. I had meetings with TBS and TNT in early 2018, and my statement to them was that I believe we could be the Pepsi of pro wrestling. And I think that's what we've done. We've captured huge market share in a multi-billion-dollar industry and embraced what it is to be a challenger brand. Really, from our launch, we've never been in a niche company. There's been a lot of interest in AEW since the launch.

But we've grown the company to where now our shows are on in 150 countries all over the world. And we're starting to expand our live events into exciting new places. Wembley Stadium, London, is the biggest event we've ever done. But we've also had our first real international tour this past summer in Canada with eight shows across six cities. Toronto, Hamilton, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, and culminating in Calgary. Eight shows in six cities across three provinces in Ontario and Saskatchewan and Alberta.

As a movie fan, I love your tweets where you describe the ending of whatever movie is on TNT before AEW comes on. AEW slots with whatever is on TNT and TBS, if it's an Avengers movie, or, or The Big Bang Theory. I'd love to know where you think AEW fits in mainstream pop culture, and where do you want it to fit as AEW keeps growing?

Tony Khan: Like you said, I really do take pride in being tuned in on pop culture and shows and movies and stuff. Because I haven't gone completely into a wrestling bubble. I think it's really exciting that there are a lot of fans watching wrestling on TV, and that there's so many hours of wrestling on TV. This is the most wrestling every week on television that there's been over 20 years. Today is a boom period for wrestling in terms of the revenues and the volume of TV content that is being produced. The launch of Collision as provided a boost to pro wrestling, I believe, and specifically to AEW, as now there's great wrestling on TNT every Saturday night. And it was exciting to have that show launch. We've done seven episodes of Collision now. So it's a relatively new thing. As we're going into Episode 200 of Dynamite tonight. It's a really exciting time for us.

About All Elite Wrestling

All Elite Wrestling continues to inject new spirit, freshness, and energy into mainstream pro wrestling featuring a world-class roster of diverse male and female wrestlers on TBS and TNT.

AEW Dynamite airs Wednesdays @ 8pm ET on TBS.

AEW Collision airs Saturdays @ 8pm ET on TNT.