Former WWE Name Announced As New AEW COO

AEW officially announces the company's new Chief Operating Officer.

by Andrew Pollard
Tony Khan
AEW

AEW has officially announced that former WWE Regional Director of Live Events Kosha Irby is the company's new Chief Operating Officer.

This is news initially revealed by Fightful back in January, where it was reported Irby had joined AEW in that COO role. Despite that, for whatever reason, AEW held off on confirming this appointment until last night.

AEW released the following statement on Kosha Irby becoming #AllElite:

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AEW CEO Tony Khan today announced that Kosha Irby has officially joined All Elite Wrestling as Chief Operating Officer.

Irby will oversee all strategic planning and execution of Live Events, Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Licensing, Consumer Products and other major lines of business for the company. He joins AEW from Clemson University, where he served as Chief Marketing Officer within the athletic department and has previously held positions with the Memphis Express of the Alliance of American Football as Chief Marketing Officer, Professional Bull Riders (PBR) as President and WWE as Regional Director of Live Events.

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“Kosha brings decades of experience within the sports, entertainment and wrestling industries alongside an incredible work ethic and passion for our brand,” said Khan. “As Chief Operating Officer, he will be a phenomenal asset to AEW as we enter the next phase of the company’s ongoing business development and expansion.”

In a follow-up to this, Fightful Select adds that Irby has indeed been in the gig since January and has already started to make changes.

Kosha has picked up many of the duties left behind by Rafael Morffi - who served as AEW Vice President of Live Events and Touring before leaving that role to take up a position with the Barclays Center - although Irby is said to take a vastly different approach to certain things than Morffi did.

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On top of that, Kosha Irby has brought a fresh approach to the logistics side of things, and his streamlining of locations for events is much more efficient than had been seen in previous years. All in all, there has been nothing but praise for Irby, and those within AEW are excited about the work he's done in his couple of months with the company.

 
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.