Tony Khan announces first-ever AEW collaboration of it's kind

Modified Apr 23, 2025 03:01 GMT

Tony Khan is the CEO of AEW [Image Credits: AEW on X]

AEW is seemingly poised to collaborate with another promotion to produce multiple upcoming independent wrestling events. The announcement came from All Elite head honcho Tony Khan on a podcast, which featured him recently.

Indie promotion Action Wrestling organized a special event, dubbed ACTION DEAN~!!!, on April 4 last year at Williamstown, New Jersey. The show was meant as a tribute to Dean Rasmussen, one of the founders of the Death Valley Driver Video Review website/board, who had passed away a year prior.

On a recent edition of the Way of the Blade podcast, All Elite Wrestling CEO Tony Khan joined another DVDVR co-founder Phil Schneider to announce multiple sequels to the original DEAN~!!!. The first of these, DEAN~! 2, is scheduled to be held on May 24, and will supposedly feature multiple names from the Jacksonville-based company. Furthermore, DEAN~! 3 could be hosted in the ECW Arena in September, around the same time as ROH Death Before Dishonor 2025.

"What we're announcing here is not just a DEAN~! 2 but a DEAN~! 2 and a DEAN~! 3 in collaboration with our friends at AEW. The first one is going to be May 24th outside of the Scottsdale Arena at 8 p.m. (local). It's going to be a free show," said Schneider. "Mad Dog Connelly is going to be on the show, Gringo Loco is going to be on the show. Coven Of The Goat. We're going to have some AEW wrestlers and make some unique matchups with [All Elite Wrestling] guys and indie guys. We're going to put on something very cool in Arizona. Also, DEAN~! 3 is going to be in September at the ECW Arena." [H/T - Fightful]

Which All Elite stars will step up to compete at the aforementioned events remains to be seen.

Tony Khan's plans for this week's AEW Dynamite

AEW will be rolling into New Orleans, Louisiana, for this week's edition of Dynamite. Two matches have been announced for the show so far. The first is a tag bout pitting "Speedball" Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight against The Young Bucks, in the EVPs' first match in the company since this past October. The second is a 2025 Women's Owen Hart Cup semifinal between Kris Statlander and Jamie Hayter.

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It remains to be seen what else Tony Khan and company have planned for fans this Wednesday.

About the author

Anurag is an AEW writer for Sportskeeda Wrestling. He holds a BA and MA degree in English along with a TEFL certification to teach English. Before Sportskeeda, he worked as a Content and Correspondence writer at Nayabad Titas, a theater group. He has also worked as a English language tutor.

To ensure complete accuracy, he uses internet resources, social media platforms, and especially pieces composed by his peers to find solid, verified information that he presents as objectively as possible. Thanks to his academic background, he can research different subjects thoroughly.

Anurag's interest in wrestling began as a child. He watched RAW and Smackdown frequently from age 10 or 11 and was officially hooked by the YES Movement story in WWE heading into WrestleMania 30.

As a lifelong wrestling fan and lover of stories, Anurag would read news, articles, and other content about the talent and events he enjoyed watching. His understanding of the business continued to grow with time, and his interest in the art and sport of wrestling led him to pursue a career as a writer.

Apart from writing, he loves to read books, watch movies and television programs, play and listen to music, and write poetry and fiction.

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Edited by Anurag Mukherjee