Matt Hardy On What It’s Like Working For Tony Khan
Matt Hardy has opened up on his relationship with Tony Khan.
Over the course of almost three decades, Hardy has worked for companies around the world and seen how multiple promoters do business. His longest tenure, however, came under Vince McMahon in WWE, while his current employer is Tony Khan in AEW.
During a recent interview with Alex McCarthy in the Daily Mail, he discussed his relationship with Khan, calling the AEW President “an amazing human being.”
“He is an amazing human being overall. I love working with him. He’s like the most fair boss, and he very much values us talent as human beings.”
He went on to compare Khan’s approach with McMahon’s, saying that in WWE he felt like a “cog in a machine.”
“There’s sometimes where you can work for people, and you know you hear this about WWE a lot, sometimes you just feel like you’re a cog in a machine. And they use you as long as you’re fully functioning and the machine continues to run. Whenever you’re taking out they put another cog in.”
With Khan, it’s different, and Hardy attributes this to him treating employees “as human beings.”
“But with Tony, if I’m not on shows, if we have a pay-per-view week and I have something on Dynamite, and there’s a lot Friday on Rampage. If I’m not on the pay-per-view, he’ll just say yeah, go ahead, go home be with your kids be with your family. That’s very important to him.
“He really considers his employees as human beings, and it’s very important to him that they get to spend as much time with their family, and they actually get to have their own lives outside of AEW.”
Another important difference is that Khan allows talent to do outside work including autograph sessions and conventions.
“Also, just the way he allows guys to do like signings, cons and whatnot. You know, autograph appearances, sometimes appearances, even in indie shows, whatever may be. And he’s very generous and very giving and very fair. He just wants what’s best for the human being and the talent.”
Although Matt Hardy is now happy in AEW, he recently admitted that he could have stayed in WWE if Triple H had been in charge when he left the company.
H/T to the Daily Mail for the above transcription.