Tony Khan: ‘To be AEW is to be under constant attack’

[NealFlanagan]

Originally published at Tony Khan: ‘To be AEW is to be under constant attack’

AEW President Tony Khan went on the defensive on Friday night at the ROH Final Battle press conference.

He hit out in particular at “bad faith posting” on X, formerly Twitter.

Khan added, “There’s a reason that every single person who stepped into my position until now has gone out of business.”

He said:

For AEW, and I think Ring of Honor because it falls under my ownership, to be AEW is to be under constant attack.

You do a great show and the next day somebody’s saying something negative. You do five great shows in a row. Somebody says something negative.

You break the ticket record for the most tickets ever sold for any wrestling show in the history of the world, and somebody has something bad to say about it. I just, at this point, I don’t worry about it. We just need to go out and do great shows week after week, like we did.

Khan defended the ratings performance of AEW, with a particular focus on Dynamite:

We were the number-one show on cable this week. On Wednesday, we beat every single show on TV on Wednesday out of hundreds and hundreds of shows across hundreds of networks. And we’ll continue doing it, and everybody who works here is gonna be in good position.

He then turned his attention to the domination of X in wrestling discourse:

I think it’s challenging because I’ve never seen anything quite like wrestling when it comes to such a large percentage of the business spending such a large percentage of their time on one platform, which is X, formerly Twitter.

It’s amazing how many people in the wrestling business are on Twitter all the time. And to be honest, I understand it because it’s a good reason; because it’s engagement; because there’s such a large percentage of the wrestling fans and you, the wrestling media, and opinion makers, and the wrestlers themselves — and the companies, so many people are on this one platform. It’s pretty unique, because in other sports, it’s more evenly distributed.

What I’ve seen is sometimes is a bit of an echo chamber. And also there’s a lot of bad faith. There’s a lot of bad faith posting on it. And you can have a great day in the business, like do the number one show and people try and tell you you didn’t do something great. Or you can break the world record for the most tickets ever sold to any wrestling show ever and have this massive, huge success on pay-per-view. And just hit a home run and the wrestling’s great and everything’s great. And still people are trying to tell you there’s some problem with it or something detrimental.

Khan spoke about leading the “fight” as head of the largest challenger brand in professional wrestling:

There’s a reason that every single person who stepped into my position until now has gone out of business.

I’m the only one left. Everybody who has stepped up and put millions of dollars into this and done it week after week, and there’s no off-season, you do it 52 weeks a year. It’s a fight, and that’s a credit to the fans.

I know what it is to be a wrestling fan 52 weeks a year, it’s hard. But it’s also the most rewarding thing. That’s why you can’t get away from it for too long. That’s why we always come back to it. We’re addicted. And it’s worth the fight, and I love the fight.

I’m never gonna stop fighting, no matter what happens. No matter how things change, it’s worth it. It’s the fight Jim Crockett fought and Verne Gagne and Ted Turner and so many other people that have tried. And God bless them all, and I’m doing this for all of you. And I know all of you are here in spirit, so thank you very much.

[p-wing]

Welcome to the business, kid.

[JustBen]

But seriously, it’s just part of being in the entertainment industry.

[PJ-River]

@NealFlanagan

to be AEW is to be under constant attack.

To be famous and exposed is to be under constant attack. That is not new.

[McGuire72]

TK is really in his Britney Spears “Lucky” era right now.

[SamFromIllinois]

You can’t want all the smoke and then complain it’s too smokey.

[kliq]

WWE, TNA, AEW, etc etc. they all get it.

[Gerrit]

Never read the comments when you are a public figure.

[MarkP]

Surprise surprise, I’m going to give a bit different opinion on this than everyone so far.

First off, just because somebody is in the public light, shouldn’t mean they are allowed to be attacked. The shit people accuse Tony of all the time include: being a drug addict, being mentally ill, etc.

Everybody speaks out on cyber bullying when it’s Hana Kimura, etc. But when you literally have twitter accounts comparing you to Hitler, because you chose to promote wrestling against the WWE, it’s all “fair”.

Secondly. Nobody is saying there is anything wrong with warranted criticism or fair criticism. With AEW however, literally every week, there is a group of podcasters and their listeners who are super focused on attacking every move AEW does.

Bischoff, Cornette, Disco, Konnan, Dutch. An intelligent person would be able to understand that they’re likely more interested in staying in WWE’s good graces since Tony wouldn’t hire them. However, their listeners spread the story week after week of narratives bashing AEW, for no other reason than existing.

You’ve got somebody like Kenny Omega in the hospital right now, and there are Cornette fans out there claiming he deserves it.

This is all ignoring the very real reach of WWE and it’s power, working against them. From “journalists” who have relationships with the company and their higher-ups such as Mike Johnson / PWInsider to Raj Alfred Konuwa - who spread narratives and stories to try to shape fan perception and push false stories. To the “all’s fair in business” style stuff from the company itself.

What has been the story of the last week?

The rumour that WBD is going to ditch AEW, due to CM Punk - created a week of content for those on the “attack AEW for content” grift.

Anyway, I’m sure people will roll there eyes at this post, and claim I’m out of touch with reality.

I’m sure none of you will have sympathy for poor billionaire TK. But he changed the business over the last five years for the better for countless people. If AEW goes away, the landscape changes for the worse.

So yeah… there is room for fair criticism, but that’s not what anybody is talking about here.

[RocketKing]

Finding the most extreme tweet possible (check out the rest of his Twitter account, if you dare) and acting like it’s the norm… to show that Internet criticism is unfair… is certainly a choice.

[MarkP]

I was pulling a random tweet I saw this week that I remembered.

Is it extreme and goofy? Yeah, of course. Are there people out there saying that stuff seriously and incredibly angry and cruel in the discourse, absolutely.

Took me ten seconds to see these… Type in Tony Khan, plus any number of insults.

Anyway, I’m not going to convince anybody here otherwise. But to say “it’s all fair” is absurd.

[RocketKing]

I don’t think anybody here said it’s fair, we’ve just acknowledged that it happens to everybody. It’s not fair, and it shouldn’t be a part of being a public figure. I think a lot of people have just lost the energy to clutch their pearls every time another example of something we all know exists comes along.

[Gerrit]

I am with Mark on this one. So many tweets or instagram comments and so on that are way over what those platforms should allow to happen. Social Media is a curse

[SamFromIllinois]

I think my thing with Tony is he probably should’ve never made himself a public figure to begin with. It seems to me like he would most likely be best suited to remain behind the scenes and should’ve hired a figurehead for the company from the very start. Someone who isn’t completely socially awkward, someone who doesn’t have many nervous tics, and someone who is great at public speaking, and someone who isn’t a serial awkward hugger.

Tony’s not cut out, as a human being, to be the public figurehead of anything, and that’s what’s led to all of the internet, I won’t even say criticism, against him, but more poking fun and trolling.

Dude’s awkward, he’s chosen to put himself out there, and people are doing to do what people do, point those things out.

Should they? No, of course not. Will they? Absolutely? Should Tony Khan have known all of these things prior to choosing to put himself out there? Sure. I mean, nobody hates pro wrestling more than pro wrestling fans, and we can’t pretend like Tony hasn’t said a ton of absurd things that has cultivated the AEW vs WWE world we live in, so yes, he is also partially to blame for all of this himself. Am I victim blaming? No. Like I said in another comment yesterday, you can’t want all the smoke then complain it’s too smokey.

[SamFromIllinois]

Here’s a great example of things Tony shouldn’t be doing on the Internet because it serves zero purpose and helps nobody.

Why on Earth is billionaire Tony Khan concerning himself with the Disco Inferno on the Internet? Why? Who does this help? Nobody. Who does this make look bad? Tony Khan. It gives the ultimate nobody of nobodies, Disco Inferno a platform he doesn’t deserve, and makes Tony look like an absolute fool who chooses to lower himself to the level of Glenn Gilbertti.

Just be better, Tony, and nobody will come for you.

[MarkP]

[SamFromIllinois]

And Tony could literally do that without ever saying a word publicly and I’d see zero issue with it.

Be petty, I don’t care.

[TheBenjamin]

He should be hiring someone to do most of what he does with AEW. No reason for him to do all the media because he’s pretty bad at it.

[kliq]

I think most agree with this, social media is a cell pool. I think where I roll my eyes is Tony khan making it sound like this is a Tony khan thing not a celebrity thing. When triple h almost died a few years back there were fans hoping for his death. Dixie Carter would have horrendous things tweeted at her that are much worse than what I’ve seen tweeted at Tony. He’s no different than anybody else.

[McGuire72]

@MarkP

Everybody speaks out on cyber bullying when it’s Hana Kimura, etc. But when you literally have twitter accounts comparing you to Hitler, because you chose to promote wrestling against the WWE, it’s all “fair”.

Man it is so disgustingly disingenuous to compare Hana Kimura’s situation to Tony Khan I’m actually surprised you went that route. Hana was an extremely niche micro-celebrity who received misogynistic criticism as a woman in a male-dominated industry, and for how she was portrayed on a reality show.

TK is a literal billionaire who chooses to participate in the pro wrestling industry despite the fact he could have a billion dollars worth of support in whatever other industry he wanted to involve himself in. He receives reasonable criticism regarding his shitty booking and inability to grow a brand, along with a healthy dose of BS criticism from twitter trolls and anons averaging 20 impressions per tweet. If you think the sort of abuse TK faces on Twitter is hard to swallow, you’re going to be disgusted when you see what people are saying about Elon Musk on that platform. Truly deplorable stuff. Elon seems ok though.

Should people be blasting TK for allegedly doing drugs and partying with his wrestlers? Perhaps not. The Intenet is a mean place. But I believe that when you are a billionaire and literally own the means of production in society, you have to grow a thicker skin and be able to work through the criticism. Are Canadians crying for Galen Weston? That guy gets dragged in the media every day. But guess what? He’s a billionaire and one of the most influential people in the country. You’ve gotta learn to roll with the punches.