AEW President Tony Khan made waves when he took a serious jab at WWE and Vince McMahon during an appearance on the NFL Network to discuss the 2024 NFL Draft.
He compared AEW to the Pepsi of professional wrestling, competing against an evil juggernaut like WWE. He also addressed them as Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced former Hollywood executive. This was the most recent shot between the two companies.
Bryan Alvarez, speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, discussed the reaction.
“And listen, I talked to people in both companies. I will say this about what he said because I know, like, a lot of fans heard the Harvey Weinstein line, and they were like, somewhere celebratory, like, it was the greatest thing ever. And some of them were like, ‘Oh, my God, like, why did he do it?’ And I can tell you from talking to people in AEW and, obviously, the WWE people thought it was ridiculous that he said it. I heard people in AEW saying the same thing. And yeah, and a lot of it, and I think one of the things is that there’s this thing about how well you either believe that Vince is the only one that was bad. Or, like, the entire company is horrible. And the reality is neither. Okay, the reality the reality is neither. It is not either. Vince is the one bad guy, and now he’s gone. And the reality also is it’s not the entire company. And people say, ‘Well, you know, she, WWE is also being sued.’ Well, they are dependent, they are but you know, when you’re when you’re talking, especially to the wrestlers, I mean, the vast majority of the people in that company, the vast majority, have nothing to do with this. Okay? And you know, when people in WWE, and when people in AEW, who have a lot of friends in WWE, see Tony accusing the entire company, the entire company is evil. We are battling an evil company. A lot of people take exception to that. And, you know, the truth is in the middle. It is not all Vince. And it is certainly not the entire company. So I think that was one of the things that people got very upset about with the comment. But at the end of the day, it’s like, he made a comment, WWE, they’ve been, you know, taking shots at AEW for five years. Now. If he wants to take a shot back, he could take a shot. They both take shots back and forth.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
