During a recent appearance on the “AEW Unrestricted” podcast, Viva Van discussed joining AEW and realizing CEO Tony Khan was putting his faith in her.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On signing with AEW: “First person I told was my boyfriend and then my family, cause I celebrated with my boyfriend and my family. What it means to me, the world, cause I’ve been training and wrestling for eight years, working for seven and it just felt like all of my hard work paid off.”
On when she realized Tony Khan believed in her work: “A lot of the girls way before AEW, we’ve all worked with each other on the indies, so I think that’s what helped a lot. Building friendships throughout years, a lot of the girls would tell me, even Aubrey would tell me, ‘I don’t know why you’re not here yet.’ I would just say, ‘I don’t know.’ I think one of the funniest things is when I had just had a match, it was me and Willow versus Lluvia in a triple threat for the CMLL Women’s World Title. The very next week, I did comic con as a dinosaur with AEW. I think that’s when Tony [was like], ‘She’s willing to put in the work.’”
During a recent appearance on the “Battleground” podcast, AEW President Tony Khan discussed AEW’s decision to hold more recent TV events in smaller venues.
Khan aims to create a more intimate atmosphere for the audience and enhance the viewing experience on TV.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On AEW switching to smaller more intimate venues for shows: “I think it just depends on the venue. I think for the pay-per-views, packing it in and bringing in 10-12 thousand fans, sometimes more, even the world attendance record we set in Wembley Stadium, over 81,000 tickets sold for AEW All In. These are great venues, great events. But it’s also great to see wrestling presented, as we’ve been doing it, on TV in recent months, in some of the great theaters, amphitheaters, and AEW is primarily, our TV has been known for a lot of great wrestling, a lot of great wrestlers, because AEW is where the best wrestle.”
On Daily’s Place being a unique viewing experience for AEW: “But the venue that’s probably most associated with AEW television is Daily’s Place, which is an amphitheater. It’s a unique viewing experience. So then in recent months, we’ve visited all these great theaters across America, and we’ve been able to find some of that same spirit, some of that same, excited passion and that packed house in these intimate venues, like you said. You’ve got Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. Recently, we had a great experience at the Andrew Brady Theater in Cincinnati, and people clearly loved seeing that. We were just at the Virgin Theater in Las Vegas.”
On going to places with a similar energy as Daily’s Place: “We’ve gone to some really great venues across different cities. Daily’s Place will always be number one in our hearts, I think, but lots of great places across America where we get that same energy. It’s different energy from these great pay-per-views in these huge arenas and stadiums. So I really enjoy it. I think first and foremost, the wrestling has been great, the wrestlers are doing a great job, our staff, and we’ve been putting great shows together.”
