During an appearance on the Sports Media podcast with Richard Deitsch, Jim Ross commented on AEW President Tony Khan:
“To be honest with you, the rudder in the water, and I see it with my own eyes, is Tony Khan. And he’s the hardest working, most enthusiastic, educated wrestling fan I’ve ever encountered in my entire life, and he’s in his early 30s. He can tell me what I said in a match before Tony was born. He’s watched all that stuff so many times, he has stuff memorized. He has amazing memory, highly intelligent, and his passion alone is one of the things that makes it fun to go to work because I’ve just never worked with anybody quite like him. I mean, he is demonstratively enthusiastic, and gets loud and exciting, and it’s infectious. So, it’s a different atmosphere in the more structured — it reminds me of how structured the old NFL was back in the day. And then how when the AFL came on the scene, how outlandish they seemed to be in the passing and the offense, the uniforms, the color schemes, all this other stuff. It was just amazing. So, I kind of feel a little bit in that area, where the traditional, the established big dog in the yard is still gonna be the big dog in the yard. The more successful WWE is, the more successful all of wrestling is. It’s always been that way. I think it will always be that way. So, as long as they are doing well, I think the rest of us can ride that tide to some degree, and while we’re at it, and most importantly, make our own way, create our own fans because what we do is different.”
