Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2023/02/20/ariel-helwani-addresses-work-with-wwe-defends-decision-to-and-open-to-doing-more/
Ariel Helwani spoke about his work with WWE over the weekend on The MMA Hour.
He noted that he is not joined WWE and it was a one-weekend-only thing but also made it clear he caught the bug and would be willing to do more with WWE, or even other wrestling companies such as AEW. He was unapologetic for those disappointed that he appeared on the shows this past weekend with his stance that he is not a pro wrestling journalist, although has reported on news in the past.
Helwani has consistently disclosed that his agent used to be Nick Khan, who later joined WWE and is now the CEO of the company while also having relationships with people in WWE.
He said that everyone backstage was buzzing when Tony Khan tweeted about Helwani and insulted him after appearing on SmackDown during a live hit inside the Bell Centre (it should be noted that Helwani has also appeared on AEW programming in 2020 providing a prediction for the Jon Moxley vs. Jake Hager match at an empty Daily’s Place during the pandemic, and also sent a video for IMPACT Wrestling and has been a guest on several WWE pre-shows over the years).
After Helwani’s second hit that night, he made the response that caused another frenzy online when he insulted Khan and escalated the drama, which he said got over really big backstage and likened the atmosphere backstage to a “big family” adding he would be lying if he said he didn’t want to do more with them.
The next shot occurred Saturday night during Elimination Chamber when Helwani was introduced in the crowd standing next to George St-Pierre and Michael Cole introduced him as “the unbiased Ariel Helwani, who asks all the hard-hitting questions whether you wanna answer them or not” and was as direct a shot at Tony Khan as anyone has taken on a WWE broadcast.
Helwani used the same reference that Nick Khan did on the Bill Simmons show, referring to Tony as a “kid” and citing his father’s fortunes as assisting Tony while also stating Tony has done a great job building up AEW. Many were critical online of both Khan and Helwani’s back-and-forth online but clearly, Helwani has zero regrets about any of it and seems more open than ever to participate in pro wrestling in the future.
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