Dave Meltzer Believes Tony Khan Sees Something Special In Kevin Knight Despite PPV Risk
Dave Meltzer believes Tony Khan is risking PPV buys due to his faith in Kevin Knight.
On the July 8 episode of AEW Dynamite, Kenny Omega defeated MJF to begin his second reign as AEW World Champion, setting up a potential clash with Owen Hart Tournament winner Will Ospreay at All In: London. However, Omega must first defend his title against current TNT Champion and Don Callis Family member Kevin Knight. Some fans have questioned why The Jet was given a title opportunity so early into his heel run, though Dave Meltzer believes the decision shows a clear level of faith from AEW president Tony Khan.
Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, claimed that AEW’s belief in Knight as one of the company’s future stars may have led Tony Khan to accept the risk of sacrificing pay-per-view buys in order to position him in a main event role.
“Clearly there are people who can be put in this spot (vs Kenny Omega) that would be stronger for the night, like Jon Moxley, Kazuchika Okada, Andrade or Kyle Fletcher. I think the strategy is clear that Tony Khan sees something in Kevin Knight and will sacrifice some PPV buys to give Knight the tag of being a PPV main eventer. And perhaps AEW’s track record for the year will be such that buys won’t be down much. AEW hasn’t been under 135,000 since they started on HBO Max”
-Dave Meltzer
Knight won the TNT Championship on April 12 at AEW Dynasty after the title was vacated by Kyle Fletcher. He has since turned heel and aligned himself with Fletcher and The Don Callis Family, leading to his second opportunity at the AEW World Championship.
The match will take place at AEW Redemption on July 26 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, with Knight heading into the bout off the back of a successful TNT Championship defence against Darby Allin on the July 22 episode of AEW Dynamite.
Tony Khan recently touched on his excitement for the bout between Kenny Omega and Kevin Knight. You can read more about that here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on future plans for Kevin Knight as soon as we hear more.
