Tony Khan Appears To Dispute Recent Cody Rhodes Claims
Tony Khan has broken down how AEW came to life.
During a recent interview, Cody Rhodes said he “hated” the narrative presented by the Young Bucks that he was the last EVP to sign with AEW.
Rhodes said that while the statement was technically true, as he was the last to put pen to paper, he was the first person to meet Tony Khan as part of a vetting process. The Undisputed WWE Champion suggested that the comments from Matt and Nick Jackson hinted that he wasn’t as committed to the AEW cause as others — something he denies.
Rhodes remained with AEW from its launch until February 2022 when he left under mysterious circumstances before re-signing with WWE.
Tony Khan Recalls Formation Of AEW
In a new interview with Liam Crowley for Comicbook, Khan recalled first having the idea for AEW in 2018 and trying to put something together with his friend and former President of TBS and TNT Kevin Reilly.
“I first had the idea, I believe on April 6th, 2018. I was at a party in Beverly Hills. I was with my friend Kevin Reilly, who was at the time the President of TBS and TNT…
I just needed to find a TV partner and in Kevin, I found a potential TV partner. It took me another year after that to actually get a deal on paper, but Kevin was interested,” Khan continued. “We had a lot of meetings about it and I had opened a door that I would never close.”
Seemingly in contradiction to Rhodes’ timeline, Khan said he first spoke with Matt Jackson and then Nick Jackson, before eventually being put in touch with The American Nightmare.
“It was a few months after my first conversation with Kevin Reilly that I had my first conversation with Matt and his wife Dana. The first person I talked to out of The Elite was Matt and Dana. They called me on July 3rd, 2018,” Khan mentioned. “I think Nick thought, ‘This guy’s crazy.’
Everybody’s heard charlatans come out of the woodwork in wrestling, and they’d seen a lot of that, and I don’t think those guys were going to take it seriously, but something about my approach intrigued Matt. Honestly, I think it was the fact that it’s coming from the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars is what it was. I think it gave us a lot of credibility.
After that I met with Cody’s agent, Brian Wittenstein, because Matt reached out to Cody and said this was a great call,” Khan continued. “I talked to Matt and Nick together, and then met Brian, and then Brian introduced me to Cody and we had all these great talks.”
During the same interview, Cody Rhodes said he always knew he’d leave AEW, and his time with the company wouldn’t last.