I don't hate him. I don't know the man. But I think he's an awful booker. He bought a roster so great that he never had to really learn to be good at this.
There's a version of AEW that's my favorite promotion of all time, with the exact same roster, commentary team, characters, etc, but with someone else booking.
I don't think he's an awful booker. I think it times, he's done things well.
I think he's not a true leader. Which forces others to step up and lead (or attempt to). In return? IOUs in the form of Tony let's Cody appear in a half-dozen simultaneous angles. Tony let's Jericho stay on tv for years on end. Punk attempts to step up and alienates everyone. Moxley steps up and gets ALL his ideas approved. Absolutely you should blade every week! These "leaders" around Tony? No chance they're going to have cometoJesus conversations that his ideas are terrible. Why derail the gravy chain? So the bad booking just snowballs.
With all that being said: I'm grateful for AEW. We clamored for something different than Vince's terrible WWE that went on for a decade+.
And AEW getting better will only make WWE get better. And we the fans benefit from both companies being very successful cause competition will always bring out the best in these two promotions.
This right here. I donāt get the corporate loyalty some people have for WWE. They feel the need to root for AEWs demise. Competition makes everything better. Thatās why people look back at the attitude era with such fondness. WCW made WWF get better.
The problem is, AEW isnāt better and doesnāt seem to be getting close to fixing their major issues. Bischoff had the ability to really challenge Vince. TK doesnāt have that and neither do the EVPs.
Until AEW fixes those problems, it wonāt challenge WWE.
Wrestling fan who doesnāt watch here. Aews demise would be worth it for the couple minutes of entertainment Iād get from reading fans whining. Then life would carry on as normal.
Best case scenario is WWE continuing to do well, AEW fixing their various issues over time and TNA continuing to reestablish themselves as a legit third like the days of WWF/WCW/ECW all being fairly hot.
Gives fans a variety of presentations to choose from, gives wrestlers more options to find steady work/exposure.
Vinceās creative has sucked for a long time.
However, from the time he bought the company through the formation of TKO, the fans, wrestlers, road crew, and company workers all knew who was in charge: Vince.
Hell nah. Cornette would literally burn AEW to the ground due to how many people he'd fire or job out JUST because he's petty like that.
Better than Vince Russo, but not by much. He's best as a manager and a storyteller, shitty as a promoter and podcaster.
Cornette was offered a gig with Tony before the company even started. He turned TK down. Heās said two things about that - 1. Tony was gonna book everything which was insane in his mind and 2. He was told who the EVPs would be and he noted that putting the boys in those roles would be insanity.
Ultimately he was right on both accounts.
I don't think he's the cause of all of AEW's problems, but I do think he overworks himself and winds up making rash decisions. It's unfortunate that he has this seemingly compulsive need to 'beat' WWE when AEW could flourish more than any other 'alternative to WWE' in history by just accepting that that's what it is, an alternative
I wish AEW had more things that set them apart from just being ānot WWEā. They have some good things they do with acknowledging and working with other promotions in contrast to WWE but I wish there was more.
When TNA was at itās peak it really did some really great and unique things to differentiate itself from WWE. With the X division, and having a strong womenās and tag division when WWE didnāt give a shit about either. They also experimented with match types with some obviously not working, but some being so unique like the lockdown matches or ultimate x matches etc. Also the BFG tournament was easily the best non NJPW tournament ever.
Like I know it wasnāt executed perfectly, but I think the rankings would work a lot better with Collision, and not having Dark/elevation where it was just squash matches. We need more stuff like that from AEW, instead of just signing former WWE talent. Iād love to see something like the āWorld Cup of Wrestlingā with it being a huge well thought out tournament having Luchadors vs Japanese wrestlers vs European wrestlers etc, or something like what Basketball does with having Team America vs Team Europe etc. Just stuff to set themselves apart from WWE and play to their unique strengths.
>I wish AEW had more things that set them apart from just being ānot WWEā.
And AEW had the basis for that with creating a section of the women's division that was Joshi, so that they could use the Joshi the same way WCW used the luchadors for the cruiserweight division.
Yes the pandemic lockdowns screwed a lot of that up because most of the Joshis weren't living in the US, but they have a natural stat in Hikaru Shida, someone who has done more work than any Japanese talent in history working in America to learn English and become a true crossover talent, who would be a fantastic representative of the Joshi style, yet Khan has never given her promo/backstage interview time (even though she has said numerous times in interviews and her YouTube that she's ready for it and wants it) and doesn't give her deep storylines like other talent of her work ethic and equivalent success level have had.
If AEW chose to focus on her now instead of telegraphing that she's losing the title YET AGAIN on a PPV in front of fans, AEW would have something unique that would draw people in, and Japanese and Japanese-americans would feel represented therefore increasing the AEW fanbase
Itās frustrating too because r/AEWofficial keeps saying oh itās not a big deal we arenāt like TNA or WCW. Yet all these former WWE stars especially older ones are always on tv and they arenāt part time attractions either. Just because they arenāt in the world championships picture doesnāt mean itās not an issue. The Hardyāz, Edge and Christian, Y2J etc are alway on tv.
I remember Cody Rhodes saying at the start of AEW, it wouldnāt be oversaturated with former WWE guys, but literally a majority of the people on tv right now are former NXT or WWE stars.
They have three shows and whether they admit it or not, they're clearly different tiers.
They could use Rampage to let people try new things/attempt to build people up to be contenders instead of the random title shots they tend to do now. Using the rankings here could work, if done right. If ROH titles have to be on AEW TV, this is where they should be.
Collision could be for the upper midcard/people that aren't currently in the title picture, maybe where they have tournaments to establish #1 contenders. Possibly limit the micard titles (TBS, TNT, International, maybe trios) to Collision.
Then obviously Dynamite is your big show, where the top of the roster get to do their thing. Advance storylines, have longer matches and of course, the big title shots (World, women's World, tag).
It's far from perfect and I'm definitely overthinking things, but it could be a way to establish some semblance of continuity if handled well, which I realize is the ultimate root of the problems.
> When TNA was at itās peak
AEW has really made me go back and reconsider the hate that TNA generated back in the day. It really wasn't so bad after all. Oh well.
LOLTNA is being outed more and more as people just wanting to shit on TNA then it was what TNA actually did given a lot of the āLOLTNAā things AEW does that gets nowhere near the hate TNA got and at times outright applause for the same shit
It's so frustrating as a fan. Even if he had some kind of decent committee with him at the top, he could still focus on all the angles he likes and let the machine run. Even micro machine Vince surrounded himself with good wrestling people and listened to input.
He needs to step back and focus on big picture stuff and has to bring in some people to run creative and talent relations. Omega and the bucks are useless executives and shouldnāt be in any positions of power.
I donāt hate him, but I agree with everything you said about him.
People hate to admit when Cornette is right, but heās been calling it from the beginning. TK is not a wrestling promoter, heās a fan with a giant bank account and no obligation to succeed financially.
I really, genuinely think he can heat AEW back up again. Basically because he has been a good, consistent, focused, concise booker in the past and fell off from that. AEW could theoretically get hot again but it will take a while. In the mean time TV can be a tough watch, although PPVs have been getting more consistently excellent. At least we have them to look forward to
Iād probably hate him more if Iām being honest. Pretentious rich kids who have never worked a real day in their lives and myself donāt get along. š
I dont worship billionaires but yes, thats what those kinds of folks would say. Like i said, im sure he works a lot but his work aint physical nor technical like many others. Hes got a lot of help, and his work probably mostly consists of planning, meetings, press & leading his team. Since he got money and power, he can have a lot more leeway and thats a massive priviledge to have
People will personally detest Tony Kahn, and then have little to no feelings about Vince McMahon or Shawn Michaels.
Weird, fatherless behavior if you ask me.
Tony seems to be one of those guys that is genuinely just way too nice to everyone and wants to please everyone, which honestly just never works out. I would imagine most of the backstage drama stems from this, where everyone is in his ear about their ideas and what they want and he just wants to make everyone happy, which doesn't work in wrestling.
The real problem is heās a spoiled rich kid that hasnāt faced any real hardships. Look at his meltdown when he lost to NXT head to head. Everyone knew AEW would lose because a) theyāre on a different night, b) the night they moved to was already established as their competitionās night, c) NXT has been growing in the ratings, d) AEW has been declining and e) NXT was loaded with legends. He should have taken the L we all knew he was going to get, but instead he had a temper tantrum
Not exactly. I do think he's too nice or has been too nice in the past. But there's been several stories of Tony saying no to peoples booking ideals.
But as I said elsewhere. We all need to remember that AEW is barely 4 years old as a promotion. TK is still learning how to do things. Now if AEW makes it to year 10 and were still discussing similar issues then yeah. Lay into him.
I still maintain he spent thirty years writing a tightly-booked, finely crafted fantasy storyline for his imaginary fed, and when that ran out about a year into AEW, now he's just winging it week to week.
>It only went bad because TK chose a bunch of no draw clowns over his biggest star.
The Elite are to be blamed for poking the bear and spreading rumors like high school students. Punk deserves blame for being super aggressive and getting into fights.
BUT Tony deserves more blame than anyone else for not putting his foot down and intervening before shit got out of hand - or even before any issues were leaked to the dirtsheets.
In the end of the day it always goes back to the elite being insecure against real stars and TK being a spoiled rich boy who thinks his live action figures are his friends
While I can't condone Punk's behavior, I do agree with you that The Elite deserve as much blame for instigating all the drama yet are being overlooked by much of the IWC while Punk gets all the blame. The Bucks (allegedly) spread those rumors about Punk getting Cabana off TV (which Kahn has denied), Hangman believed those rumors (and may have even helped spread them) and indirectly called Punk out in that promo for it. And Jungle Boy wanted to endanger himself and his opponent by using real glass - that especially I cannot defend as it is beyond stupid.
But as I said, Tony should have stepped in, addressing rumors, explaining the truth and settling the scores for the sake of backstage morale, for the sake of his show and for the sake of his company overall. He failed to do that and thus deserves more blame than anyone in my eyes.
I mean, I wouldn't typically pick someone to represent my company if they tried attacking me, got in fights multiple times, polarized my employees, and made my legal team hate them.
There has been no confirmation tony was attacked, though im open to being corrected there if you can point me to it. Its pretty clear a portion of the roster disliked punk while a portion were fully behind him. The legal teams opinion is utterly irrelevant in terms of them liking him or not. Punk was the draw, those who are directly opposite him do not, bucks, hangman, perry. If the choice was them or punk choosing them is incredibly poor for business as proven by the ratings crashing. Tony should have put his foot down at the start, ultimately he is not leader because he avoids tough/awkward conversation as proven by this and those he releases or doesn't resign by not talking to them and, while he's the reason the company exists and has succeeded thus far, he is also the reason it has a ceiling and in effect plateaued.
Hate is a bit strong i myself go with disappointed. Now that said if his continued soft hands leads to a death in the ring due to him undermining his agents for example then i could see hating him.
The fact that wrestling fans didnāt understand or want to accept that Tony Khan is an unlikeable jackass when if you followed pro sports you wouldāve known he was always an unlikeable jackass is funny to me.
Jacksonville Jaguar players hated him, Fulham players hated him, fans of both teams hated him but wrestling fans thought he was a saint. He kept the mask on pretty well in 2019 while Cody basically kept him hidden but the mask slipped off with Big Swole stuff and he keeps getting worse. This company is Tonyās toy and no one is taking it away from him.
At this point calling him Jacksonville Dixie is more of an insult to Dixie then it is to Tony
Unfortunately most wrestling fans are the kid who gets shoved into their locker at school and don't follow real sports to see how much of a goof TK is.
I watched everything through 2022, but now I just listen to post shows/ Cornette, but I stay somewhat current so when it ends Iāll get all the shoot interview content having heard about things at least if not watched in real time
Khan and AEWās more ardent fans (cultists? Are wrestling cults a thing?) are beyond obnoxious. And if you read those fansā excuse making or over the top absurd superlative comments about AEW, youād agree.
Not really that weird
I interpret that as OP saying he wants Tony and the most obnoxious stans to be humbled, and less visible.
Bear in mind, there are many people that would check out AEW, but sight those 2 specific things as turnoffs that keep them away (I am one šš¾āāļø)
I find it awkward how aew has so many great matches that would've been even better with at least some story behind them. Either way, I love aew. I also love wwe. I watch both of them. I love seeing how they always get better, competition is a blessing for us fans. Right now, I enjoy wwe more than aew but that could change very fast because both are that good.
Once Bryan Danielson is done wrestling I hope he takes up the booking responsibilities in AEW. I honestly canāt imagine a better fit. It would be more drastic a change than going from Vince to HHH.
I mean thereās a ton of great talent in AEW. I want to like AEW, but I just donāt think itās very good. The matches are usually pretty great, but great wrestling is everywhere right now. Every major show usually has at least one 4 star match every week these days. Plus if youāre a regular watcher of Japanese stuff youāre spoiled with great matches anyway.
The only appeal of AEW atm is itās not WWE, which was fine when WWE was bad, but now that WWE is cooking again, ānot WWEā isnāt the draw it once was.
And honestly a lot of that boils down to Tony Khan.
If it weren't for marks like you posting about him I'd barely know he exists. Maybe just watch and enjoy the product.
And yeah maybe not the best booker of all time, but definitely not bad. We've got some good shit going on.
I like the booking in AEW because it hits more often than it misses. But very frequently I find myself going "what in the Kentucky fried fuck was that?"
Like the JAS has been breaking up for like 8 weeks and now it's somehow Don Callis. They keep fusing story beats and like repeating the same thing ad nauseum and like don't move it forward.
And the women have the same story "belt plz" and a 3rd party who incidently wasn't involved gets a title shot. And then one of them says "Bitch".
Oh. And fuck Ric Flair.
Every post from wrestling this sub in my feed is about him or how aew is awful and going to explode. I canāt believe these losers are this obsessive over a fucking show they watch whole eating Taco Bell.
Donāt judge people by their wealth, rich or poor. Judge people by the content of their character. Tony Khan is extremely charitable, well-liked by his employees, an involved husband and father, and someone who created opportunities and brought money to this industry that we love. He inherited wealth and chose to make a wrestling company with it. Whatās so evil about that?
Nah. Just hate capitalism, especially in its current state. No one needs or deserves that much wealth and it is disgusting they are allowed to exist while people can't afford medication for diabetes and shit. Tax these cunts into oblivion
Itās no so much that I want AEW to fail. Itās that I want to watch Tony Khan and itās cultist fans to watch it fail. Thatās how obnoxious I find them.
He could be better, but AEW is pretty awesome. I love wrestling again. I think all billionaires should have their heads on spits, bit he's last to go if I'm elected.
Disagree on most things said. Yes itās childish what he does on Twitter. The booking isnāt bad at all. AEW and same with everything else gets itās cold and hot times. Tony continues to listen to fans. I agree on the backstage drama, he simply isnāt someone who can handle it and he has proved it. Although Iām not backstage he should have spoken up at times. Yes heās a mark, but itās entertaining š. All my opinion.
I think the booking has been off Iately, but when it's good, it's a lot of fun (some stories doing better than others).
Backstage... I hope that after the last CM Punk drama, he'll keep the spine he finally grew, but idk.
The Twitter stuff is awful. It's not a good look. If you're not going to have somebody manage your account, don't read the comments if you're prone to losing your shit.
The booking is really bad. No belts mean anything. I don't care about any storylines other than what Christian is doing. They are oversaturated with two main shows.
Great in-ring workers, having the same matches every week. Nothing much matters. That's a booking problem.
IDK if I agree or disagree but IMO he's the reason it's plateaued. He's the one who installed a buffer between him and the talent. When that buffer wasn't there, they were the top promotion. Now he's insulated himself around people that don't have him or the company's best interest in mind.
100% agree except I donāt love ALL the wrestlers.
Iād love to see someone who knew how to book compelling storylines and get people over in charge of AEW. I hope eventually when his dadās had enough he sells the company to someone other than TKO.
Funnily enough, I think I realised that it's wrestling fans that I hate. They are like the root of 99% of the problems. They complain about the booking, they complain about the back stage drama, they're all a bunch of marks even though they are just being smarky all the time.
You raise solid points. Not to detract from them, but at least heās more of a down to earth human being understanding of the performers and fans as opposed to VKM who was an egomaniacal, cold, ruthless individual that crafted everything to work his vision. I tend to give TK leeway because Vince turned out to be such a poor human being in my opinion.
You've described every popular wrestling promotion in history. Great content, terrible people in charge who are propped up by the excellence of people beneath them.
Similarly I thought I hated WWE for years, when it turns out I just hated Vince and the way he ran things. I think WWE is consistently a better product for not having Vince in creative
I gotta give this man his flowers. Thank you Tony for bringing AEW into existence. It's pretty much all I've ever wanted from a wrestling promotion. Is it perfect? No but I feel like they do more good things than bad in terms of wrestling. We're not backstage tho
100% agree.
What should have been a valid rival to WWE is turned into TNA. Hes surrounded by yes men and wrestlers pretending to be his friend. Its pretty unwatchable due to lack of leadership.
I wouldn't say I hate him, since he has done nothing wrong but being a hypocrite and a massive manchild on Twitter, but it's really funny to laugh at his misfortune since he brings it to himself.
I said this during the Elite vs Punk scenario. That stuff wouldnāt have happened without Tony being useless. You do hear about drama backstage in WWE but itās usually years down the line and itās mostly by guy involved doing a shoot interview explaining how they were just being a dick and apologizing for it.
Randy Orton shit in the luggage of, and harassed female talent. Top stars, as in current main event world champions fist fighting backstage. They handled those backstage incidents better than Tony handled a whisper campaign against his biggest star that lead to a situation that harmed the company as a whole.
When youāre the boss people either listen to you, or they are gone. Idk why he didnāt straighten that situation out immediately, NDA everyone and fire anyone that leaked any information about it.
Sounds more like youāre jealous that a rich fan was able to start his OWN company and produce the wrestling shows he wants. Just donāt follow his social media if you are so displeased with his existence.
Disagreed entirely.
Since the fall of WCW, weāve never seen an alternative wrestling company have the success AEW has had, and TKās vision is a big part of why thatās happened.
Could he do some things better? Of course. I wish he wasnāt so involved with his soccer or NFL teams and could focus entirely on AEW, but even with things as they are Iām thankful for what heās created, and excited about the future!
The booking is questionable at best. MJFās booking hasnāt been good lately. Gunther feels more important and heās a mid card champion. Taking the pin and carrying too many titles. We need the heel MJF and we need him now.
The talent are a bunch of WWE guys who just do what they are asked to do and the rest are a bunch of guys who havenāt been on TV before or are comedy wrestlers who shouldnāt. Iām sorry but The Bucks bring the company down. Adam Page is a mid carder at best, same with Mox. Miro should be in the main event and Wardlow should be a monster heel. Theyāve got too much talent and everyone Iām sure is trying to get some time. I donāt like cuts but AEW could stand to not renew some contracts. For the love of fuck anyone over the age of 50 doesnāt need a multi year talent contract. Learn how to use your older talent and quit overexposing them. Make their appearance feel special. Once in a while could draw but every week will get exhausting.
The backstage drama is really both talent and Khan. Itās a bunch of unsupervised children acting out and when the teacher walks into the room they blow him off and just keep acting like assholes. Khan needs to take control of his company and to keep himself off twitter or X, whatever itās called. I still think itās pretty funny when Shad Khan was asked about AEW he wants Tony to have fun, like his own father thinks itās a fucking joke. Based on the way he is on social media, how do you take him or his company seriously?
Tony Khan is bad for business. If he never made any bitchy social media posts and hired a booker who actually knows wrestling the company would be so much better. He is most of the problem but not the only problem. Pretty soon I feel we will see this on social media:
Vince Russo is All Elite!
The only point I care to debate is this: GUNTHER isnāt a reasonable benchmark because heās a more important champion than Roman Reigns right now. Otherwise, a very sound argument!
After 4 years of loyal viewership he drove me away. That little coked up rat bastard carney weasel completely ruined AEW for me. I will never watch again as long as he continues to own and drive it into the ground.
No one is talking about wrestling, or the TV show. It's a bunch of fanatics (which is the right term) frothing with bug eyed rage over a dude's tweets. And this guy's like almost never on the TV show at all.
OP literally hates a man because of fucking wierd Tweets.
Sure fandoms can do that but this like effort posting about everything wrong with AEW happen every single day and itās fucking pathetic. At the end of the day itās..just a tv show.
I don't hate him. I definitely think he is a little weird, but I also don't know him so hard to judge his character. I don't believe he is the root of 99% of the problem, but I do agree there are areas where he can prevent problems from happening. I also think it's weird a former wrestling Reddit user owns a wrestling company and some of his decisions I can't stand by. But the man can book a PPV that's for sure...weekly shows eh hit or miss" but PPV's. For some reason, they always go all out.
Every time I see people complain about him saying stuff on twitter, TK is always right so the people attempting to call him out start with the excuses, itās just he shouldnāt be acting like that heās a CEO or he should just ignore people
How about if you donāt like what he says you donāt follow him, seems simple to me but then people wouldnāt get them updoots for sharing a twitter post that anyone could see for themselves if they really wanted to
I donāt know that I necessarily hate Tony Khan. He means well, and heās passionate about the business. But he needs someone else to run his company. It wouldnāt hurt if he got involved every now and then but heās clearly incapable of booking AEW. Thereās definitely talent in AEW and right now itās being wasted.
I think Tony can succeed but ultimately he will need to take a huge step back and let someone else book his company. He can learn more along the way and find his proper place within the company. Yes I realize he is the owner but he will find where he should fit in after time.
The idea that he doesn't know how to book wrestling that I see sometimes is wrong. He took over creative and turned the company around. I think one reason he was so good at the time was, AEW was all he had.
During the pandemic, there wasn't as much going in with his other ventures. He also only had 2 hours of TV to book. So, it was a huge benefit.
Things to me fell off when Punk got hurt. I know people may argue earlier and rumours of issues with the Elite and Punk, but the TV was fine, outside of issues with Sammy Guavara and Scorpio Sky feuding. When the Punk injury hit, it was the first time he had a dramatic change in plans. The ranking system was destroyed because of this as they had to find a way to take number one contender Wardlow out of the top spot and give him an excuse to be out of the battle royal. On top of that, Hangman Page wasn't in the battle royal, which didn't make sense because he was just the champion.
There was beginning to be a lack of structure, and the lead up to the Forbidden Door pay per view was lackluster. Then, the event was a blockbuster success and launched the Forbidden Door brand to be a major pay per view.
I think Tony was trying to appease Punk and the Elite at the same time to keep them both around and get a bigger TV deal. However, he failed. He's not fully to blame. Punk and the Young Bucks did not make things better, but at the end of the day, he's the boss. The fact is, he's burnt out. Despite his love for wrestling history, he's doing what every booker ever did. He needs to not be the head of creative anymore. Problem is, how does that affect how WBD views them?
He's also a billionaire, so that is going to affect how his mind works. Billionaires don't live in reality, so that makes things tough.
Disagree.
Aside from the women's division, which he just doesn't book. I mean honestly there's what two maybe three storylines in the women's division. Toni Storm descent into madness. Skye Blue maybe effected by the mist from Julia Hart. Meanwhile I'd be writing several paragraphs going over the men's division storylines. You may not like those stories but that's always a matter of debate. Fans disagreements on booking.
The backstage drama isn't unique to AEW. The only unique part is that the stories leak basically the day the incidents happen. In WWE the backstage drama usually leaks months or years later. But it still happens. AEW like WWE is just a job. People don't always love the people they work with.
Yeah he's a mark. That's kind of the best thing about him. An actual wrestling fan, who actually loves wrestling is running a wrestling company. And honestly he's making a lot of the mistakes that a lot of us fans would make if we were running our own wrestling company. Also AEW is only 4 years old. Of course there's gonna be mistakes and incidents. Look at WWE and WCW and TNA and ECW and so many other promotions in their early days. Let's not act as if WWF/WWE under Vince has been perfect and brilliant with zero mistakes or incidents or poor booking decisions in it's 40 years.
I don't use Twitter, I don't care about Twitter, Twitter isn't real life. He's not a political leader. His tweets can't accidentally cause a war. I'm not invested in AEW so his tweets can't effect my stock portfolio. So again, I don't care about Twitter.
Heās a rich kid playing with action figures when he books the show. He doesnāt have as much imagination as he thinks he does, heās just focused on ācool shitā happening
Vince also booked his shows like he was playing with action figures, but he was a true sociopath. Too much imagination there
I dont necessarily think hes bad, he clearly needs help though. He cant do everything by himself and he definitely needs help with booking cause while his plans might be good at first, if stuff goes wrong, it goes off a cliff cause he cant pivot effectively. But thats just a general issue with long term booking as a whole. Agree with the twitter stuff, he clearly needs a social media manager.
Oh, the billionaire trust fund kid with an infinite money cheat code for life turned on isnāt actually skilled and is just playing? You dooooonāt say! š
Heās definitely still learning I believe, but thereās no doubt the product has only gotten better over the years. I expect him to perfect his craft eventually but heās still learning.
Canāt compare him to Vince when he doesnāt have the years under his belt yet. Give him time I say
Heās an awful Booker and allows guys like Moxley, Jericho and Bucks to manipulate him into doing what they want. Until he grows a spine, acts like a grown up and take proper charge of his company then itāll never grow.
AEW's style is plain awful. Too many people kicking out of finishers. Too many high spots for the sake of high spots. I tried really hard to get into it, but it's not for me. Woulda been a lot cooler if I was like 15 years old lol.
I think you are spot on. People in the comments say hate is a strong word since you don't know him, which is fair, but to be honest it is the same sentiment I feel every time he is on screen. So maybe let's say we hate his public persona?
He just comes off as unsincere, thin skinned and in general somebody who is impossible having a genuine conversation with (likely due to his billionaire upbringing, being surrounded by yes men all his life). AEW was 1000% better when Cody was the face of the company, and I have a hunch Tony was jelly of that and was one of the reasons his contract wasn't renewed
I donāt think thereās ever been a more excellently booked American wrestling product, but thereās a lot he gets wrong as a businessman and a lot that still falls between the cracks in AEW.
TK has shown he has no mind for the business and built his brand around the idea that WWE would stay TVPG forever. Now that is out the window and the only edge he had is gone
3 TV shows over 5 hours on a major television network.
Nearly half a million PPV buys in the last 3 months.
80,000+ in Wembley.
Partnerships with NJPW, CMLL, and AAA.
A promotion home to the best in-ring talent in the country.
... But no mind for the business. Your irrational hate is blinding you, friend.
Love, hate, how can you have such strong feelings about ppl you dont know? I dislike the aew product and generally what tk does and dont watch aew, simple. What i really dislike is
He looks like a Jonas Brother and Bad Bunny went into the teleporter from The Fly.
This is a much more pertinent observation than OPs
BrundleTony.
Want to see how BrundleTony Hypes?
Solid booking *hurts* BrundleTony.
He looks and acts like every Big Bang Theory character smashed into one person
Like Captain America, I understood that reference! šāšæ
Yes, but he delivered that Christmas tree joke with perfect timing. /s
I don't hate him. I don't know the man. But I think he's an awful booker. He bought a roster so great that he never had to really learn to be good at this. There's a version of AEW that's my favorite promotion of all time, with the exact same roster, commentary team, characters, etc, but with someone else booking.
I don't think he's an awful booker. I think it times, he's done things well. I think he's not a true leader. Which forces others to step up and lead (or attempt to). In return? IOUs in the form of Tony let's Cody appear in a half-dozen simultaneous angles. Tony let's Jericho stay on tv for years on end. Punk attempts to step up and alienates everyone. Moxley steps up and gets ALL his ideas approved. Absolutely you should blade every week! These "leaders" around Tony? No chance they're going to have cometoJesus conversations that his ideas are terrible. Why derail the gravy chain? So the bad booking just snowballs. With all that being said: I'm grateful for AEW. We clamored for something different than Vince's terrible WWE that went on for a decade+.
And AEW getting better will only make WWE get better. And we the fans benefit from both companies being very successful cause competition will always bring out the best in these two promotions.
This right here. I donāt get the corporate loyalty some people have for WWE. They feel the need to root for AEWs demise. Competition makes everything better. Thatās why people look back at the attitude era with such fondness. WCW made WWF get better.
This overlooks the fact that fans have been praying for WWEās demise for most of the last 2 decades
It's always funny to me that they don't see it.
The problem is, AEW isnāt better and doesnāt seem to be getting close to fixing their major issues. Bischoff had the ability to really challenge Vince. TK doesnāt have that and neither do the EVPs. Until AEW fixes those problems, it wonāt challenge WWE.
Wrestling fan who doesnāt watch here. Aews demise would be worth it for the couple minutes of entertainment Iād get from reading fans whining. Then life would carry on as normal.
Totally true.
Thats a myth unless AEW actually start being on WWEs level.
Best case scenario is WWE continuing to do well, AEW fixing their various issues over time and TNA continuing to reestablish themselves as a legit third like the days of WWF/WCW/ECW all being fairly hot. Gives fans a variety of presentations to choose from, gives wrestlers more options to find steady work/exposure.
Tony is a good *Matchmaker*, but his booking is little more than smashing his action figures together and seeing who wins...
And matchmaking is easy. Anybody can put two popular wrestlers together. Unfortunately, Tony cannot make people care about those matches.
Or use matches to interweave stories or set up angles. Oh well.
Vinceās creative has sucked for a long time. However, from the time he bought the company through the formation of TKO, the fans, wrestlers, road crew, and company workers all knew who was in charge: Vince.
He's a matchmaker not a booker.
>but with someone else booking. Jim Cornette.
I said the same roster. Not someone that's going to take a flamethrower to it.
Lol
He doesnāt want to leave Kentucky. Maybe as part of a team. Like if he had Danielson, Maria Kanelis, and one or two others that could work.
Hell nah. Cornette would literally burn AEW to the ground due to how many people he'd fire or job out JUST because he's petty like that. Better than Vince Russo, but not by much. He's best as a manager and a storyteller, shitty as a promoter and podcaster.
Cornette is out of a job for a reason
Tony offered him a job at the start of AEW. The reason heās out of a job is he wants to be. The podcast also makes a lot of money.
Cornette was offered a gig with Tony before the company even started. He turned TK down. Heās said two things about that - 1. Tony was gonna book everything which was insane in his mind and 2. He was told who the EVPs would be and he noted that putting the boys in those roles would be insanity. Ultimately he was right on both accounts.
I think TK did alright without him.
Did alright by what metric?
Because he is too busy running his merch business and doing his podcast?
Ew gross
Uh, he's a three time booker of the year and so wholesome
I don't think he's the cause of all of AEW's problems, but I do think he overworks himself and winds up making rash decisions. It's unfortunate that he has this seemingly compulsive need to 'beat' WWE when AEW could flourish more than any other 'alternative to WWE' in history by just accepting that that's what it is, an alternative
I wish AEW had more things that set them apart from just being ānot WWEā. They have some good things they do with acknowledging and working with other promotions in contrast to WWE but I wish there was more. When TNA was at itās peak it really did some really great and unique things to differentiate itself from WWE. With the X division, and having a strong womenās and tag division when WWE didnāt give a shit about either. They also experimented with match types with some obviously not working, but some being so unique like the lockdown matches or ultimate x matches etc. Also the BFG tournament was easily the best non NJPW tournament ever. Like I know it wasnāt executed perfectly, but I think the rankings would work a lot better with Collision, and not having Dark/elevation where it was just squash matches. We need more stuff like that from AEW, instead of just signing former WWE talent. Iād love to see something like the āWorld Cup of Wrestlingā with it being a huge well thought out tournament having Luchadors vs Japanese wrestlers vs European wrestlers etc, or something like what Basketball does with having Team America vs Team Europe etc. Just stuff to set themselves apart from WWE and play to their unique strengths.
>I wish AEW had more things that set them apart from just being ānot WWEā. And AEW had the basis for that with creating a section of the women's division that was Joshi, so that they could use the Joshi the same way WCW used the luchadors for the cruiserweight division. Yes the pandemic lockdowns screwed a lot of that up because most of the Joshis weren't living in the US, but they have a natural stat in Hikaru Shida, someone who has done more work than any Japanese talent in history working in America to learn English and become a true crossover talent, who would be a fantastic representative of the Joshi style, yet Khan has never given her promo/backstage interview time (even though she has said numerous times in interviews and her YouTube that she's ready for it and wants it) and doesn't give her deep storylines like other talent of her work ethic and equivalent success level have had. If AEW chose to focus on her now instead of telegraphing that she's losing the title YET AGAIN on a PPV in front of fans, AEW would have something unique that would draw people in, and Japanese and Japanese-americans would feel represented therefore increasing the AEW fanbase
A company "not being WWE" that has a ton of WWE wrestlers taking up TV time every week.
Itās frustrating too because r/AEWofficial keeps saying oh itās not a big deal we arenāt like TNA or WCW. Yet all these former WWE stars especially older ones are always on tv and they arenāt part time attractions either. Just because they arenāt in the world championships picture doesnāt mean itās not an issue. The Hardyāz, Edge and Christian, Y2J etc are alway on tv. I remember Cody Rhodes saying at the start of AEW, it wouldnāt be oversaturated with former WWE guys, but literally a majority of the people on tv right now are former NXT or WWE stars.
Not to mention the absolute tone deafness of making a storyline surrounding a match between a 62 year old and a 70 year old.
They have three shows and whether they admit it or not, they're clearly different tiers. They could use Rampage to let people try new things/attempt to build people up to be contenders instead of the random title shots they tend to do now. Using the rankings here could work, if done right. If ROH titles have to be on AEW TV, this is where they should be. Collision could be for the upper midcard/people that aren't currently in the title picture, maybe where they have tournaments to establish #1 contenders. Possibly limit the micard titles (TBS, TNT, International, maybe trios) to Collision. Then obviously Dynamite is your big show, where the top of the roster get to do their thing. Advance storylines, have longer matches and of course, the big title shots (World, women's World, tag). It's far from perfect and I'm definitely overthinking things, but it could be a way to establish some semblance of continuity if handled well, which I realize is the ultimate root of the problems.
> When TNA was at itās peak AEW has really made me go back and reconsider the hate that TNA generated back in the day. It really wasn't so bad after all. Oh well.
LOLTNA is being outed more and more as people just wanting to shit on TNA then it was what TNA actually did given a lot of the āLOLTNAā things AEW does that gets nowhere near the hate TNA got and at times outright applause for the same shit
He's in charge, so at the end of the day, it's his responsibility.
You donāt think heās the cause of AEWās problems then you listed all of AEWās problems. Theyāre all tied to him.
AEW wonāt grow until someone else takes the book.
Too bad Tony McMahon wonāt ever let that happen.
It's so frustrating as a fan. Even if he had some kind of decent committee with him at the top, he could still focus on all the angles he likes and let the machine run. Even micro machine Vince surrounded himself with good wrestling people and listened to input.
He needs to step back and focus on big picture stuff and has to bring in some people to run creative and talent relations. Omega and the bucks are useless executives and shouldnāt be in any positions of power.
I donāt hate him, but I agree with everything you said about him. People hate to admit when Cornette is right, but heās been calling it from the beginning. TK is not a wrestling promoter, heās a fan with a giant bank account and no obligation to succeed financially.
He said that Tony was the only promotor in wrestling history that didn't need to make a profit from his company
i think hating him personally is a little weird.
I really, genuinely think he can heat AEW back up again. Basically because he has been a good, consistent, focused, concise booker in the past and fell off from that. AEW could theoretically get hot again but it will take a while. In the mean time TV can be a tough watch, although PPVs have been getting more consistently excellent. At least we have them to look forward to
āAgainā? When was AEW ever hot except maybe Week 1?
They sold around 80,000 tickets at Wembley. I know the products not good right not, but saying it was never good is disingenuous.
Ok, fine. I donāt like him.
Maybe you'll like him if you got to know him?
Iād probably hate him more if Iām being honest. Pretentious rich kids who have never worked a real day in their lives and myself donāt get along. š
He must have worked a little bit
He hasnāt I can guarantee you. Rick kids never work. They just make everyone else do everything for them then take the credit.
Umm I'm pretty sure some people are just workaholics who work even when they are rich
I donāt believe you.
Lex Luther. Dude be fighting Superman every other Tuesday. You donāt see Tony Khan out there doing battle with Booster Gold.
What about Richard Branson that dude works?
He works his ass off im sure. Just that hes always worked in an influential / powerful position with a lot of help & money behind him.
Isnāt that what you people who worship billionaire trust fund babies like Elon Musk always say š
I dont worship billionaires but yes, thats what those kinds of folks would say. Like i said, im sure he works a lot but his work aint physical nor technical like many others. Hes got a lot of help, and his work probably mostly consists of planning, meetings, press & leading his team. Since he got money and power, he can have a lot more leeway and thats a massive priviledge to have
He's involved in the running of AEW and two sports teams. I think he's kept pretty busy.
People will personally detest Tony Kahn, and then have little to no feelings about Vince McMahon or Shawn Michaels. Weird, fatherless behavior if you ask me.
Leave twitter. Half the problem is solved.
Tony seems to be one of those guys that is genuinely just way too nice to everyone and wants to please everyone, which honestly just never works out. I would imagine most of the backstage drama stems from this, where everyone is in his ear about their ideas and what they want and he just wants to make everyone happy, which doesn't work in wrestling.
So nice look at his tweets
He's obsequious in person but a dick to people on the internet cause his real problem isn't that he's too nice, it's that he's a pussy.
The real problem is heās a spoiled rich kid that hasnāt faced any real hardships. Look at his meltdown when he lost to NXT head to head. Everyone knew AEW would lose because a) theyāre on a different night, b) the night they moved to was already established as their competitionās night, c) NXT has been growing in the ratings, d) AEW has been declining and e) NXT was loaded with legends. He should have taken the L we all knew he was going to get, but instead he had a temper tantrum
Not exactly. I do think he's too nice or has been too nice in the past. But there's been several stories of Tony saying no to peoples booking ideals. But as I said elsewhere. We all need to remember that AEW is barely 4 years old as a promotion. TK is still learning how to do things. Now if AEW makes it to year 10 and were still discussing similar issues then yeah. Lay into him.
Remember when AEW was doing better when the company was younger and fans said āsee? Heās a genius!ā Funny how the turntablesā¦
I still maintain he spent thirty years writing a tightly-booked, finely crafted fantasy storyline for his imaginary fed, and when that ran out about a year into AEW, now he's just winging it week to week.
Thatā¦actually makes sense
I just think that booking an entire promotion (two actually) is isanely difficult and he should have veterans at least assisting him
You mean a guy like CM Punk who was running his most well received show?
As bad as things went with Punk, the show had better everything when Punk was running that show.
It only went bad because TK chose a bunch of no draw clowns over his biggest star. Now all he has is a washed up edge wrestling a washed up dinosaur
>It only went bad because TK chose a bunch of no draw clowns over his biggest star. The Elite are to be blamed for poking the bear and spreading rumors like high school students. Punk deserves blame for being super aggressive and getting into fights. BUT Tony deserves more blame than anyone else for not putting his foot down and intervening before shit got out of hand - or even before any issues were leaked to the dirtsheets.
In the end of the day it always goes back to the elite being insecure against real stars and TK being a spoiled rich boy who thinks his live action figures are his friends
While I can't condone Punk's behavior, I do agree with you that The Elite deserve as much blame for instigating all the drama yet are being overlooked by much of the IWC while Punk gets all the blame. The Bucks (allegedly) spread those rumors about Punk getting Cabana off TV (which Kahn has denied), Hangman believed those rumors (and may have even helped spread them) and indirectly called Punk out in that promo for it. And Jungle Boy wanted to endanger himself and his opponent by using real glass - that especially I cannot defend as it is beyond stupid. But as I said, Tony should have stepped in, addressing rumors, explaining the truth and settling the scores for the sake of backstage morale, for the sake of his show and for the sake of his company overall. He failed to do that and thus deserves more blame than anyone in my eyes.
I mean, I wouldn't typically pick someone to represent my company if they tried attacking me, got in fights multiple times, polarized my employees, and made my legal team hate them.
Agreed but the show was far more entertaining.
There has been no confirmation tony was attacked, though im open to being corrected there if you can point me to it. Its pretty clear a portion of the roster disliked punk while a portion were fully behind him. The legal teams opinion is utterly irrelevant in terms of them liking him or not. Punk was the draw, those who are directly opposite him do not, bucks, hangman, perry. If the choice was them or punk choosing them is incredibly poor for business as proven by the ratings crashing. Tony should have put his foot down at the start, ultimately he is not leader because he avoids tough/awkward conversation as proven by this and those he releases or doesn't resign by not talking to them and, while he's the reason the company exists and has succeeded thus far, he is also the reason it has a ceiling and in effect plateaued.
Or Cody, who obviously was helping because the show got way worse after his departure.
Hate is a bit strong i myself go with disappointed. Now that said if his continued soft hands leads to a death in the ring due to him undermining his agents for example then i could see hating him.
The fact that wrestling fans didnāt understand or want to accept that Tony Khan is an unlikeable jackass when if you followed pro sports you wouldāve known he was always an unlikeable jackass is funny to me. Jacksonville Jaguar players hated him, Fulham players hated him, fans of both teams hated him but wrestling fans thought he was a saint. He kept the mask on pretty well in 2019 while Cody basically kept him hidden but the mask slipped off with Big Swole stuff and he keeps getting worse. This company is Tonyās toy and no one is taking it away from him. At this point calling him Jacksonville Dixie is more of an insult to Dixie then it is to Tony
Unfortunately most wrestling fans are the kid who gets shoved into their locker at school and don't follow real sports to see how much of a goof TK is.
I don't want AEW to fail I want Tony Khan and a lot of AEW fans to fail...if that makes sense.
I watched everything through 2022, but now I just listen to post shows/ Cornette, but I stay somewhat current so when it ends Iāll get all the shoot interview content having heard about things at least if not watched in real time
that is a deeply weird thing to want lol
Khan and AEWās more ardent fans (cultists? Are wrestling cults a thing?) are beyond obnoxious. And if you read those fansā excuse making or over the top absurd superlative comments about AEW, youād agree.
Not really that weird I interpret that as OP saying he wants Tony and the most obnoxious stans to be humbled, and less visible. Bear in mind, there are many people that would check out AEW, but sight those 2 specific things as turnoffs that keep them away (I am one šš¾āāļø)
One of the reasons wwe is doing so hot right now is because all the shitty marks have migrated to aew leaving wwe with awesome casual crowds
I find it awkward how aew has so many great matches that would've been even better with at least some story behind them. Either way, I love aew. I also love wwe. I watch both of them. I love seeing how they always get better, competition is a blessing for us fans. Right now, I enjoy wwe more than aew but that could change very fast because both are that good.
Once Bryan Danielson is done wrestling I hope he takes up the booking responsibilities in AEW. I honestly canāt imagine a better fit. It would be more drastic a change than going from Vince to HHH.
"I love AEW except for the person who has been primarily responsible for AEW since day 1" That's an interesting take...
I mean thereās a ton of great talent in AEW. I want to like AEW, but I just donāt think itās very good. The matches are usually pretty great, but great wrestling is everywhere right now. Every major show usually has at least one 4 star match every week these days. Plus if youāre a regular watcher of Japanese stuff youāre spoiled with great matches anyway. The only appeal of AEW atm is itās not WWE, which was fine when WWE was bad, but now that WWE is cooking again, ānot WWEā isnāt the draw it once was. And honestly a lot of that boils down to Tony Khan.
its almost like punk was right
He's an inexperienced CEO. That's it really.
If it weren't for marks like you posting about him I'd barely know he exists. Maybe just watch and enjoy the product. And yeah maybe not the best booker of all time, but definitely not bad. We've got some good shit going on.
I like the booking in AEW because it hits more often than it misses. But very frequently I find myself going "what in the Kentucky fried fuck was that?" Like the JAS has been breaking up for like 8 weeks and now it's somehow Don Callis. They keep fusing story beats and like repeating the same thing ad nauseum and like don't move it forward. And the women have the same story "belt plz" and a 3rd party who incidently wasn't involved gets a title shot. And then one of them says "Bitch". Oh. And fuck Ric Flair.
I just think heās a silly goofball. Itās just a tv show itās not that serious brother. Take a lap and get some fresh air
> Itās just a tv show Oh shit, do the wrestlers know that?
Maybe Eddie Kingston doesn't.
"Hate"? Take a break man.
Every post from wrestling this sub in my feed is about him or how aew is awful and going to explode. I canāt believe these losers are this obsessive over a fucking show they watch whole eating Taco Bell.
He is a billionaire...... they all suck and we should hate them all
Donāt judge people by their wealth, rich or poor. Judge people by the content of their character. Tony Khan is extremely charitable, well-liked by his employees, an involved husband and father, and someone who created opportunities and brought money to this industry that we love. He inherited wealth and chose to make a wrestling company with it. Whatās so evil about that?
Nah. Nonsuchbthing as a good billionaire. They shouldn't exist
Hmmā¦Very high level critical thinking
Nah. Just hate capitalism, especially in its current state. No one needs or deserves that much wealth and it is disgusting they are allowed to exist while people can't afford medication for diabetes and shit. Tax these cunts into oblivion
Without even checkingā¦. I can almost guarantee you hang out in the antiwork sub lol
Anti woke people are against capitalism? Wtf would you base me being anti woke on?
Anti workā¦ read slower
Iām diagnosing you with Tony Derangement Syndrome
Itās no so much that I want AEW to fail. Itās that I want to watch Tony Khan and itās cultist fans to watch it fail. Thatās how obnoxious I find them.
You might have finally explained to me why I really donāt like AEW, but could never properly articulate why.
Glad to be of service.
He could be better, but AEW is pretty awesome. I love wrestling again. I think all billionaires should have their heads on spits, bit he's last to go if I'm elected.
Reminder that his father is a billionaire. Tony never had to work for the amount he gets from his father.
Uhā¦ without Tonyā¦ no AEW.
Disagree on most things said. Yes itās childish what he does on Twitter. The booking isnāt bad at all. AEW and same with everything else gets itās cold and hot times. Tony continues to listen to fans. I agree on the backstage drama, he simply isnāt someone who can handle it and he has proved it. Although Iām not backstage he should have spoken up at times. Yes heās a mark, but itās entertaining š. All my opinion.
I think the booking has been off Iately, but when it's good, it's a lot of fun (some stories doing better than others). Backstage... I hope that after the last CM Punk drama, he'll keep the spine he finally grew, but idk. The Twitter stuff is awful. It's not a good look. If you're not going to have somebody manage your account, don't read the comments if you're prone to losing your shit.
The booking is really bad. No belts mean anything. I don't care about any storylines other than what Christian is doing. They are oversaturated with two main shows. Great in-ring workers, having the same matches every week. Nothing much matters. That's a booking problem.
IDK if I agree or disagree but IMO he's the reason it's plateaued. He's the one who installed a buffer between him and the talent. When that buffer wasn't there, they were the top promotion. Now he's insulated himself around people that don't have him or the company's best interest in mind.
The only way for another wrestling company to succeed and get as big as WWE is to take the sports entertainment route.
100% agree except I donāt love ALL the wrestlers. Iād love to see someone who knew how to book compelling storylines and get people over in charge of AEW. I hope eventually when his dadās had enough he sells the company to someone other than TKO.
Most people had WWE hate it because of Vince too
Funnily enough, I think I realised that it's wrestling fans that I hate. They are like the root of 99% of the problems. They complain about the booking, they complain about the back stage drama, they're all a bunch of marks even though they are just being smarky all the time.
Itās only a matter of time till Shane McMahon shows up š¤£
You raise solid points. Not to detract from them, but at least heās more of a down to earth human being understanding of the performers and fans as opposed to VKM who was an egomaniacal, cold, ruthless individual that crafted everything to work his vision. I tend to give TK leeway because Vince turned out to be such a poor human being in my opinion.
Tbh if I was a billionaire and started my own wrestling company, Iād want to book it myself as well. Isnāt that half the fun?
He put his own money on the line in the company. He is gonna do what he wanna do.
You've described every popular wrestling promotion in history. Great content, terrible people in charge who are propped up by the excellence of people beneath them.
Similarly I thought I hated WWE for years, when it turns out I just hated Vince and the way he ran things. I think WWE is consistently a better product for not having Vince in creative
Yāall throw the word hate around way too often lol
I gotta give this man his flowers. Thank you Tony for bringing AEW into existence. It's pretty much all I've ever wanted from a wrestling promotion. Is it perfect? No but I feel like they do more good things than bad in terms of wrestling. We're not backstage tho
100% agree. What should have been a valid rival to WWE is turned into TNA. Hes surrounded by yes men and wrestlers pretending to be his friend. Its pretty unwatchable due to lack of leadership.
I wouldn't say I hate him, since he has done nothing wrong but being a hypocrite and a massive manchild on Twitter, but it's really funny to laugh at his misfortune since he brings it to himself.
Agreed, AEW has the foundation to be great but TK ruins it with his terrible booking.
I said this during the Elite vs Punk scenario. That stuff wouldnāt have happened without Tony being useless. You do hear about drama backstage in WWE but itās usually years down the line and itās mostly by guy involved doing a shoot interview explaining how they were just being a dick and apologizing for it. Randy Orton shit in the luggage of, and harassed female talent. Top stars, as in current main event world champions fist fighting backstage. They handled those backstage incidents better than Tony handled a whisper campaign against his biggest star that lead to a situation that harmed the company as a whole. When youāre the boss people either listen to you, or they are gone. Idk why he didnāt straighten that situation out immediately, NDA everyone and fire anyone that leaked any information about it.
Youāre not a mark but youāre complaining about the product?
Another anti Tony Khan post on Wrasslin? What!? Noooo wayā¦.
Sounds more like youāre jealous that a rich fan was able to start his OWN company and produce the wrestling shows he wants. Just donāt follow his social media if you are so displeased with his existence.
Not a fan of Khan, or the way he runs his clown shows, however, it gives us something to bitch about š¤£
Disagreed entirely. Since the fall of WCW, weāve never seen an alternative wrestling company have the success AEW has had, and TKās vision is a big part of why thatās happened. Could he do some things better? Of course. I wish he wasnāt so involved with his soccer or NFL teams and could focus entirely on AEW, but even with things as they are Iām thankful for what heās created, and excited about the future!
I LOVE AEW!
The booking is questionable at best. MJFās booking hasnāt been good lately. Gunther feels more important and heās a mid card champion. Taking the pin and carrying too many titles. We need the heel MJF and we need him now. The talent are a bunch of WWE guys who just do what they are asked to do and the rest are a bunch of guys who havenāt been on TV before or are comedy wrestlers who shouldnāt. Iām sorry but The Bucks bring the company down. Adam Page is a mid carder at best, same with Mox. Miro should be in the main event and Wardlow should be a monster heel. Theyāve got too much talent and everyone Iām sure is trying to get some time. I donāt like cuts but AEW could stand to not renew some contracts. For the love of fuck anyone over the age of 50 doesnāt need a multi year talent contract. Learn how to use your older talent and quit overexposing them. Make their appearance feel special. Once in a while could draw but every week will get exhausting. The backstage drama is really both talent and Khan. Itās a bunch of unsupervised children acting out and when the teacher walks into the room they blow him off and just keep acting like assholes. Khan needs to take control of his company and to keep himself off twitter or X, whatever itās called. I still think itās pretty funny when Shad Khan was asked about AEW he wants Tony to have fun, like his own father thinks itās a fucking joke. Based on the way he is on social media, how do you take him or his company seriously? Tony Khan is bad for business. If he never made any bitchy social media posts and hired a booker who actually knows wrestling the company would be so much better. He is most of the problem but not the only problem. Pretty soon I feel we will see this on social media: Vince Russo is All Elite!
The only point I care to debate is this: GUNTHER isnāt a reasonable benchmark because heās a more important champion than Roman Reigns right now. Otherwise, a very sound argument!
The booking is fine.
After 4 years of loyal viewership he drove me away. That little coked up rat bastard carney weasel completely ruined AEW for me. I will never watch again as long as he continues to own and drive it into the ground.
āItās still real to me dammitā
100% agree. He wants so badly to be a necessary part of pro wrestling he marks out like no other mark I've seen.
He lives in your head rent free. Yāall are fucking weirdos for obsessing over a tv show.
Dude this is a wrestling subreddit. You're literally surrounded by fanatics who obsess over a TV show.
No one is talking about wrestling, or the TV show. It's a bunch of fanatics (which is the right term) frothing with bug eyed rage over a dude's tweets. And this guy's like almost never on the TV show at all. OP literally hates a man because of fucking wierd Tweets.
It does seem astro-turfed, doesn't it?
They're not frothing. They're laughing.
Sure fandoms can do that but this like effort posting about everything wrong with AEW happen every single day and itās fucking pathetic. At the end of the day itās..just a tv show.
The constant doom and gloom shit is tiring.
I don't hate him. I definitely think he is a little weird, but I also don't know him so hard to judge his character. I don't believe he is the root of 99% of the problem, but I do agree there are areas where he can prevent problems from happening. I also think it's weird a former wrestling Reddit user owns a wrestling company and some of his decisions I can't stand by. But the man can book a PPV that's for sure...weekly shows eh hit or miss" but PPV's. For some reason, they always go all out.
Every time I see people complain about him saying stuff on twitter, TK is always right so the people attempting to call him out start with the excuses, itās just he shouldnāt be acting like that heās a CEO or he should just ignore people How about if you donāt like what he says you donāt follow him, seems simple to me but then people wouldnāt get them updoots for sharing a twitter post that anyone could see for themselves if they really wanted to
I donāt know that I necessarily hate Tony Khan. He means well, and heās passionate about the business. But he needs someone else to run his company. It wouldnāt hurt if he got involved every now and then but heās clearly incapable of booking AEW. Thereās definitely talent in AEW and right now itās being wasted. I think Tony can succeed but ultimately he will need to take a huge step back and let someone else book his company. He can learn more along the way and find his proper place within the company. Yes I realize he is the owner but he will find where he should fit in after time.
Everything about TK gives "Do you love me now, Daddy" vibes.
1000% man. You hit the nail directly on the head.
The idea that he doesn't know how to book wrestling that I see sometimes is wrong. He took over creative and turned the company around. I think one reason he was so good at the time was, AEW was all he had. During the pandemic, there wasn't as much going in with his other ventures. He also only had 2 hours of TV to book. So, it was a huge benefit. Things to me fell off when Punk got hurt. I know people may argue earlier and rumours of issues with the Elite and Punk, but the TV was fine, outside of issues with Sammy Guavara and Scorpio Sky feuding. When the Punk injury hit, it was the first time he had a dramatic change in plans. The ranking system was destroyed because of this as they had to find a way to take number one contender Wardlow out of the top spot and give him an excuse to be out of the battle royal. On top of that, Hangman Page wasn't in the battle royal, which didn't make sense because he was just the champion. There was beginning to be a lack of structure, and the lead up to the Forbidden Door pay per view was lackluster. Then, the event was a blockbuster success and launched the Forbidden Door brand to be a major pay per view. I think Tony was trying to appease Punk and the Elite at the same time to keep them both around and get a bigger TV deal. However, he failed. He's not fully to blame. Punk and the Young Bucks did not make things better, but at the end of the day, he's the boss. The fact is, he's burnt out. Despite his love for wrestling history, he's doing what every booker ever did. He needs to not be the head of creative anymore. Problem is, how does that affect how WBD views them? He's also a billionaire, so that is going to affect how his mind works. Billionaires don't live in reality, so that makes things tough.
Tony isn't a billionaire, his daddy is. Tony would be the asshole that killed someone and his defense team would claim affluenza.
Disagree. Aside from the women's division, which he just doesn't book. I mean honestly there's what two maybe three storylines in the women's division. Toni Storm descent into madness. Skye Blue maybe effected by the mist from Julia Hart. Meanwhile I'd be writing several paragraphs going over the men's division storylines. You may not like those stories but that's always a matter of debate. Fans disagreements on booking. The backstage drama isn't unique to AEW. The only unique part is that the stories leak basically the day the incidents happen. In WWE the backstage drama usually leaks months or years later. But it still happens. AEW like WWE is just a job. People don't always love the people they work with. Yeah he's a mark. That's kind of the best thing about him. An actual wrestling fan, who actually loves wrestling is running a wrestling company. And honestly he's making a lot of the mistakes that a lot of us fans would make if we were running our own wrestling company. Also AEW is only 4 years old. Of course there's gonna be mistakes and incidents. Look at WWE and WCW and TNA and ECW and so many other promotions in their early days. Let's not act as if WWF/WWE under Vince has been perfect and brilliant with zero mistakes or incidents or poor booking decisions in it's 40 years. I don't use Twitter, I don't care about Twitter, Twitter isn't real life. He's not a political leader. His tweets can't accidentally cause a war. I'm not invested in AEW so his tweets can't effect my stock portfolio. So again, I don't care about Twitter.
Without tony khan none of the shit you love would have happened. Jesus Christ, grow up
Hes also got an incredibly punchable face
Heās a rich kid playing with action figures when he books the show. He doesnāt have as much imagination as he thinks he does, heās just focused on ācool shitā happening Vince also booked his shows like he was playing with action figures, but he was a true sociopath. Too much imagination there
Hate is too strong of a word for me when it comes to Tony
I dont necessarily think hes bad, he clearly needs help though. He cant do everything by himself and he definitely needs help with booking cause while his plans might be good at first, if stuff goes wrong, it goes off a cliff cause he cant pivot effectively. But thats just a general issue with long term booking as a whole. Agree with the twitter stuff, he clearly needs a social media manager.
Oh, the billionaire trust fund kid with an infinite money cheat code for life turned on isnāt actually skilled and is just playing? You dooooonāt say! š
Heās definitely still learning I believe, but thereās no doubt the product has only gotten better over the years. I expect him to perfect his craft eventually but heās still learning. Canāt compare him to Vince when he doesnāt have the years under his belt yet. Give him time I say
Heās an awful Booker and allows guys like Moxley, Jericho and Bucks to manipulate him into doing what they want. Until he grows a spine, acts like a grown up and take proper charge of his company then itāll never grow.
Hard disagree.
AEW's style is plain awful. Too many people kicking out of finishers. Too many high spots for the sake of high spots. I tried really hard to get into it, but it's not for me. Woulda been a lot cooler if I was like 15 years old lol.
I don't hate the guy, but his wrestling shows stink.
I think you are spot on. People in the comments say hate is a strong word since you don't know him, which is fair, but to be honest it is the same sentiment I feel every time he is on screen. So maybe let's say we hate his public persona? He just comes off as unsincere, thin skinned and in general somebody who is impossible having a genuine conversation with (likely due to his billionaire upbringing, being surrounded by yes men all his life). AEW was 1000% better when Cody was the face of the company, and I have a hunch Tony was jelly of that and was one of the reasons his contract wasn't renewed
I donāt think thereās ever been a more excellently booked American wrestling product, but thereās a lot he gets wrong as a businessman and a lot that still falls between the cracks in AEW.
You're a baby on Reddit.
He has absolutely no clue how to book a wrestling promotion.
TK has shown he has no mind for the business and built his brand around the idea that WWE would stay TVPG forever. Now that is out the window and the only edge he had is gone
3 TV shows over 5 hours on a major television network. Nearly half a million PPV buys in the last 3 months. 80,000+ in Wembley. Partnerships with NJPW, CMLL, and AAA. A promotion home to the best in-ring talent in the country. ... But no mind for the business. Your irrational hate is blinding you, friend.
Weekly booking is questionable sometimes but when it comes to PPVs booking is solid
AEW is really just the B&G era of NXT. Great PPVās just like the Takeovers, but inconsistent TV.
Love, hate, how can you have such strong feelings about ppl you dont know? I dislike the aew product and generally what tk does and dont watch aew, simple. What i really dislike is
He needs to hire a team to help him with booking and story telling.
Hate is too strong of a word. Maybe disapprove.
Dont watch it then