Tony Khan Comments On AEW Having So Few Rematches

WWE programming has been criticised over the years for booking rematches, with some feuds seeming to drag on well past when they should have finished. Shinsuke Nakamura and King Corbin finding themselves in a neverending spiral of matches and Big E and Apollo Crews not facing a different opponent for four months are just two recent examples of repeat booking.

Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics looked into how many matches are rematches from the prior six months during the period from July 2020 until mid-June 2021. He discovered 57 percent of Raw matches took place in the prior six months, while 54 percent of SmackDown contests were rematches. NXT also scored 31 percent while only 10 percent of AEW: Dynamite matches had taken place in the last six months. 

AEW's figure was slightly higher when looking at pay-per-view cards with 26 percent being rematches. This didn't come close to the WWE main roster, though, where 65 percent of matches on pay-per-view had taken place within six months of the show. NXT TakeOver events were 31 percent rematches. 

Tony Khan has since commented on the findings to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, saying: "This is a cool stat. I take a lot of pride as a booker that there are rarely rematches on Dynamite and that when there are, it's usually a very important story payoff like the Britt Baker vs. Thunder Rosa Lights Out Match.