During a recent appearance on the NFL Network, AEW President Tony Khan referred to WWE as “an evil juggernaut” and “the Harvey Weinstein of pro wrestling.”
Khan’s comments quickly went viral on social media.
During the interview, Khan also maintained kayfabe from the AEW Dynamite angle, where he was on the receiving end of a “Tony Khan Driver” from The Young Bucks.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On The Young Bucks changing the name of their move to the Tony Khan Driver: “They changed the name a couple months ago. Maybe I should’ve seen it coming in hindsight. … They called it the Tony Khan Driver. I have a complicated relationship with Matt [Jackson] and Nick [Jackson], and Jack [Perry]. Jack had been out of AEW for a while. I sent him on an excursion to our partner in Japan where he did great things. I reinstated him Wednesday night on TBS by his own request. He repaid me by hitting me in the stomach with a microphone, and then Matt and Nick held me up for the Tony Khan Driver, which is really a spike pikedriver. It’s one of the deadliest moves in pro wrestling. It’s been banned in a lot of states. It’s illegal in the state of Tennessee, and for them to do that to me in front of millions of people around the world, and a great audience live Wednesday night on TBS, it scared me, and it scared my family. And I just feel really lucky that I’m here at the NFL Draft and with the Jaguars and able to still be working with the Jaguars and AEW right now.
On his father’s reaction: “He was very angry at the people who assaulted me. My dad loves AEW, and he’s a big fan of what we do, Wednesdays on TBS, and Saturdays, just like tomorrow night here in Jacksonville, on TNT every week. He watches every show, and he never expected something like that. It’s never happened before.”
On AEW being up against an “evil juggernaut” in WWE: “You know, AEW, we’ve been doing this for five years. We are the most successful sports startup since the AFL, pre-merger. There has not been a challenger brand who has gained as much marketshare as AEW in many, many, many years. We are like the Pepsi of pro wrestling. We are up against an evil juggernaut. WWE is our competitor. That’s who we’re facing. AEW is like the Pepsi of pro wrestling. WWE is like the Harvey Weinstein of pro wrestling, and I’m really proud of what we do down here.”
Khan also informed the NFL Network analysts that they could determine his prognosis by tuning into AEW on TNT and TBS.
Tony Khan discusses taking the TK Driver from the Bucks and compares WWE to Harvey Weinstein pic.twitter.com/borodQ1GiF
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) April 26, 2024
From NFL Draft Kickoff on @nflnetwork: #Jaguars and @AEW exec Tony Khan joins us to give an update on his condition after taking the brunt of a Tony Khan driver he says he should’ve seen coming. pic.twitter.com/bugAkQ8Ho3
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) April 26, 2024
