Ariel Helwani Explains How His WWE Appearances Came Together

WWE

Ariel Helwani has explained how his WWE appearances came together.

On the February 17 edition of SmackDown, combat sports journalist Ariel Helwani appeared on the show to hype the following night’s Elimination Chamber event.

This led to AEW CEO Tony Khan tweeting how Helwani was a fraud after his criticism of his 2022 interview with Khan being a bad one.

Helwani would later reply with an icy comeback calling Khan “snowman”. WWE would get in on the feud with some subtle digs at the AEW President during the Elimination Chamber show when introducing Ariel.

During Monday’s episode of the MMA Hour, Ariel Helwani explained how his WWE appearance came together.

Helwani said that he didn’t know of his appearance until Wednesday, February 15 that he was even going to Montreal. Following January’s Royal Rumble, he had reached out to WWE about writing something to honor the event in Montreal with the company taking him up on it.

Ariel later followed up and an agreement was made for him to do the voiceover and then attend both Elimination Chamber and SmackDown over the weekend.

He said he talked to someone backstage on Friday who suggested that he should be part of the SmackDown broadcast.

Helwani credited Paul “Triple H” Levesque for making this happen and also shouted out Paul Heyman with helping him out with specific terminology and how he delivered his message on the show.

Ariel believes that his back and forth with Tony Khan led to WWE inviting him back for the Elimination Chamber event the following night.

On the criticism from those who felt like his WWE appearances went against his journalistic ethics, Helwani reiterated that, “I am not a wrestling journalist,” saying for MMA, he will not break that rule of working for a promotion.

Ariel revealed that he was offered the change to do a voiceover for Fedor Emelianenko’s last fight for Bellator MMA and turned it down.

He said he wants to have fun and do things that give him joy and that’s what his WWE appearances were all about. He reiterated that he doesn’t do daily wrestling news or have a website like Dave Meltzer and didn’t understand the constant comparisons on social media all weekend.

Helwani did get paid by WWE whereas he initially turned it down for his first video package voiceover that he offered last year.

He said when he was hired by BT Sport, it was primarily for UFC but Dana White “threw a fit” and they then moved him to do WWE interviews instead.

The MMA Hour host also said he believes Sami Zayn should have defeated Roman Reigns at Elimination Chamber.

As previously reported, Ariel Helwani also revealed WWE’s backstage reaction to his Twitter feud with Tony Khan on the podcast.

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• Ariel Helwani
• WWE Elimination Chamber
• tony khan
• wwe

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