The conclusion of the 4/13 episode of AEW Dynamite saw Samoa Joe defeat Minoru Suzuki to become the new ROH World Television Champion. On the outside of the ring were Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt who Joe is involved in an on-screen program with.
The lights in the arena went out and when the lights came back on, Satnam Singh, AEW signee and 2015 NBA Draft pick was standing behind Joe and that led to Joe being beaten down to close the show. There was a great deal of feedback on social media about the presentation of Satnam’s debut.
Tony Khan appeared on Busted Open Radio and said the idea to turn the lights off was not his and that came from someone with 30 years of experience in the wrestling business. Khan said no negatives were pointed out when the idea was presented but he and those around him were not thinking about the cons.
I could have done it better included all the great wrestling people around me and in the production meeting but you know, it was a lot of veteran people and to be honest, nobody said that but then when it happened, I agreed with the fans completely.
I love how he has to say it wasn’t his idea but someone else with 30 years experience. He gets more and more unlikeable everyday. I guess it’s inevitable with how scummy Vince and Dana are.
I don’t ever recall him coming out and making a point of saying that a good idea was someone’s else’s, funny how he only does it with bad idea’s. I want to like Tony because he is an excellent booker, but every time he speaks he just becomes more and more unlikeable.
To a degree, that’s celebrity in a nutshell. No celebrity appeases everyone.
He does it to himself. In the past 6 months he’s bashed a former employee/contractor etc. for saying the company needed to be more diverse. He’s said he’s the ultimate filter while blaming someone else for a bad booking decision, and he’s blamed “a bot campaign” for any negative criticism of AEW. Not to mention all the bickering he has done on Twitter with fans over ratings and the demo. This is just off the top of my head.
Guy is an amazing booker, I’ll give him credit where credit is due. But he has a serious problem accepting any type of criticism, and he’s way to vocal on Twitter/podcasts. That’s a very bad combination and will start to bite him in the ass.
Honestly, while I shouldn’t be surprised by the meltdown of social media on this one, I really don’t see what the issue was.
He didn’t blame a bot campaign for any negative reactions. He stated that he discovered an organized bot campaign that took aim at AEW, and suggested WWE was behind it. Which, isn’t all that crazy to think.
WWE has been playing sneaky the last couple of years. From leaking fast nationals to pro-WWE reporters, to planting other stories in the media. (Ie; the attempt at bringing up a controversy over the pizza cutter Gage moment last summer.)
Bot campaigns are more and more frequent.
Honestly, Tony is the most open book promoter of TV wrestling since probably Heyman in the mid-90’s (and likely, way more honest). The guy seems to genuinely love what he’s doing. He had certainly put his foot in his mouth a couple of times, but the overreaction to nothing statements going on just blows me away.
The wrestling landscape would be a whole lot worse in North America had it not been for Tony Khan the last few years, and I really feel like a lot of people don’t seem to think about that much.
I know I’m generally a very pro-AEW viewer, and I think a lot of that is due to the fact I realize how awful the national landscape has been for TV wrestling for the last two decades.
At least missteps are acknowledged. He took responsibility as being the person who let it on the air. I don’t see him handing the blame away. He explained situation, and said he put it on tv.
The bot thing is definitely legit, they are used all over the place from politics to business. I totally buy that issue and it would not be surprising at all for WWE to be behind it.
This is a different issue. As the head of creative he’s won awards from the Observer and got a lot of praise but trying to avoid blame for this was just a bad look.
Either take all the credit (like he has many times) and all the blame or none of it.
I’m not saying a bot campaign is real or not real, honestly it’s irrelevant to me. My point is that whenever criticism is thrown his way, he seems to have a need to get defensive. It’s one thing to have this mentality if you are a 17 year old tik toker, an independent wrestler, a blogger etc. but when you are the billionaire owner of a giant and extremely successful company, just take your criticisms and move on.
Everything you said about him reinvigorating wrestling is spot on, but both can be true. He can both be a great Booker/owner, and come off childish and petty.
He completely is childish and petty. He comes across like a spoiled rich kid which he is.
Yes he’s done a good job booking and reinvigorated wrestling. But anything that is good is all his idea and anything that isn’t good while he does admit to it, which makes him better than Vince for instance, he totally ends up blaming somebody else ultimately for this.
Think of the finish of the exploding cage match. He tried to deflect that as some story. He then fired a Swole and tried to blame her for being a sucky wrestler when she complained about racism. Now, he saying it was someone else’s idea for this.
He will never stand up and say I take full responsibility for what happened. Period.
The exploding cage match he took responsibility for. He joking said that in storyline it was a good thing Omega built the explosions, as a haha way to escape it. But in any other questions on it, he explained that it wasnt what was supposed to happen. And I think, he’s somebody that has tried to make things up to people ever since that, by over delivering.
The Swole thing was completely stupid, and I have no excuses for.
Overall, I think people overlook that Tony seems to be a workaholics, and one who successfully runs multiple organizations. I think wrestling is his true passion, and occasionally he will speal more as a fan than an owner. To some, that rubs the wrong way. To me, for the most part, it’s refreshing.
95% agree with both your takes. He is both a spoiled rich kid who has a hard time accepting blame, especially if he thinks he’s right. He’s also a passionate hard worker who has done more for this business in the past 3 years then anyone.
I dont think he’s a spoiled rich kid. I think he’s an internet wrestling fan. Unfortunately, the bad kind of internet wrestling fan. The kind that gets into dumb arguments on Twitter and says stupid shit and is very stubborn. He’s basically a member of the IWC who happens to have enough money to own a wrestling company. Thankfully he isnt a troll.