Tony Khan Reveals Truth About Why He Takes Shots At WWE

AEW

All Elite Wrestling (AEW) President and CEO Tony Khan has explained why he and his company often take shots at WWE.

If you’ve ever watched an AEW show or looked at Tony Khan’s Twitter, you’ll know that he’s not going to shy away from taking a shot at WWE when he can – a fact that has divided a lot of fans.

Speaking in a new interview with Ariel Helwani, Khan explained that he was given a book by Warner Media that explained how to succeed as a “challenger brand” – of course with AEW being the challenger brand to WWE – and one piece of advice he picked up from that was taking shots at the company you’re challenging.

Khan said:

“I’ve said it before, I consider all wrestling as competition. Some people ask me why I’ll talk about other wrestling companies, especially WWE, and I’ll tell you. It was literally a book handed to me over three years ago before the launch of Dynamite by Warner Media at the time before it was Warner Bros Discovery.

“It was telling me what our place (was) already because Dynamite hadn’t launched, but we had carved out a space in the pay-per-view business.

“They handed me a book. It was (about) how to be a challenger brand. This is what you are. A challenger brand I learned then, three years ago, is not the industry leader, but it is also not a niche brand. It is not that. It is a big company. It is Pepsi (to Coca-Cola). It is Burger King (to McDonald’s).

“What will get Burger King marketing? What is Burger King marketing? Basically a lot of it is ‘hey McDonalds sucks guys’.

“So for AEW, it’s just part of what we are. We’re a challenger brand. There’s no reason to pretend we’re not. That’s what you are. Embrace it. So it is literally a corporate philosophy handed down on high to me by my boss.”

Plenty of AEW fans love Khan’s philosophy of taking shots at WWE as it’s something a lot of people have been waiting for throughout the years, but it does also earn him a lot of criticism from people who actually think it hinders AEW rather than helping.

Khan has come under a lot of scrutiny for his management of the AEW locker room, something that only erupted further last night as there was yet another backstage altercation between talent at Dynamite, this time involving Andrade El Idolo and Sammy Guevara.

Quote via SEScoops

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