Tony Khan: “Miro Is Going To Be A Big Star [In AEW]”

AEW President and CEO Tony Khan was recently on a media conference call, where he discussed a number of topics. Among them was Miro, who used to be known as Rusev in WWE.

Below are some highlights from the call:

On why Miro was not immediately inserted into the world title picture:

“Miro’s going to be a big star here. It’s really hard for people to come into AEW when you have a ranking system unless they come in at the start of a new year cycle,” Khan said. “And I didn’t want to wait till January to bring Miro in. Brian Cage was the exception because Brian Cage, I booked him, he came in… I signed Brian Cage in January and he came in, I was going to do the Casino Ladder Match and Brian would be a surprise and we would build to Brian getting a shot but build up a record for Brian before we did Moxley versus Brian Cage.”

“But I can’t do that for everybody and I wasn’t going to do it again, and so I couldn’t just put Miro in the main event with no record and no history here,” he added. “So he’s got to build up and build story, but he’s working with some of the top people in AEW, some of the people I regard as the top people — with the Best Friends and now Orange Cassidy in the story — and so, we have great stuff going on the top of the card and I just couldn’t cast everybody aside. Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho and MJF, Cody and Darby, Ricky Starks and Brian Cage. We have Will Hobbs moving up now. Hangman [Page}. There are so many great things going on in AEW, and Miro is now going to be a huge part of AEW, too, but, just like everyone else, he has to win matches and get involved in stories.”

On plans for his character in the future:

“Whether people know it or not, we’re re-contextualizing Miro,” he said. “I don’t know what Miro was supposed to be before he came to AEW. I don’t understand what he represented. And I think most of the great characters in wrestling have some element of their personality, where they bring themselves into it. And the Miro you’re seeing is the person I know.”

“I’m just kind of rebuilding him, to be honest with you. I thought he got beat up so badly [in WWE],” Khan said. “I saw some jackass on Twitter was like, ‘This guy drove a tank at WrestleMania and now he’s doing this,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, and then he got kicked in the nuts and they treated him like s— for years. He drove a tank out five years ago. That’s not the guy I signed. The guy I signed had been abused for years. And he’s being rebuilt.”

[h/t to Comicbook.com for the transcription]

What do you think of Tony Khan’s comments about Miro? Leave us a comment below, or post a comment on our Facebook page! Also, be sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Follow @WrestleRumors