Tony Khan On AEW Roster – “I Can’t Make Everybody Get Along”
Tony Khan has addressed how he deals with AEW wrestlers who can’t seem to get along.
It is well-known among the wrestling community that there are locker room issues in AEW, so much so that the company had to do an unofficial roster split for Dynamite and Collision to accommodate everything.
Due in part to CM Punk’s September 2022 backstage fight with The Elite’s Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson as well as Punk’s dislike for their friend “Hangman” Adam Page, Punk has been kept apart from those four guys.
Punk’s good friend Ace Steel was fired by Tony Khan & AEW due to the backstage fight. However, when Punk came back to AEW in June 2023, he got Steel his job back although Steel is not allowed to go to actual AEW shows. This has also led to Punk preventing people from going to Collision like Head of Talent Relations Christopher Daniels and wrestler Ryan Nemeth.
Tony Khan Says Wrestling Fans Are Most Important
Looking ahead to AEW’s huge All In event in London, England this Sunday, Tony Khan spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about wrestlers in AEW having backstage issues while focusing on doing what’s best for the fans.
“The most important thing to me as the CEO is the wrestling fans. I’m a huge wrestling fan, and I try to think like a wrestling fan. I want the best wrestlers here in AEW. I want the best roster. And there may be some of them that don’t get along with each other backstage or on TV. It’s not ideal, but it’s a reality, and I can’t make everyone get along. I’m not sure it’s necessarily even in the best interest of pro wrestling for everybody to get along.
“But ideally, everybody is going to be able to focus on their matches and putting on the best shows for the fans. And I think that’s what we’ve been doing. We’ve had really strong ratings.”
“So even though wrestlers backstage hate each other and don’t want to be friends with each other, I think we all agree this is a really exciting time for the company. And it’s a really exciting time for the wrestling business and for the wrestling fans.”
As he continued, Tony Khan made it clear his priority is to give the fans the best show possible.
“There are a lot of people around here who think they’re the best. And I think a lot of them have a valid claim that they’re the best. And what I’m trying to do is to create an environment where everybody can go out and prove it multiple times per week and create a platform where the fans can decide who the best wrestlers are, what the best rivalries are, what the best matches are.”
“As long as I can keep the top talent in AEW, we will have the best matches and the best big events. The lineup of wrestlers competing on AEW All In is the strongest group of talent we’ve ever assembled on one show, it features some of the biggest matches in the history of this company, and I think it’s going to be one of the greatest days ever in pro wrestling this Sunday.”
Tonight’s AEW Dynamite tapings will be an interesting endeavor for Tony Khan because they are doing the final Dynamite live while also taping Collision for Saturday night because they need to fly to England for Sunday’s show. That means a lot of wrestlers will be backstage that don’t normally see each other every week.