3 suggestions Tony Khan apparently ignored for AEW

Tony Khan has steadily progressed AEW from its start back in 2019 and made it into a popular alternative to the mainstream WWE. However, when you're the person in charge of a wrestling promotion there's bound to be a lot of people speaking in your ear and suggesting you the next courses of action.

Sometimes these suggestions can be meaningfully acted upon by the one in charge or outright shut down and ignored. We're here to look at the instances where Tony Khan apparently ignored such suggestions.

#3. Mark Henry urged Tony Khan to sign Jacob Fatu for AEW

Jacob Fatu has been a major hit with fans ever since he arrived in WWE. The star has been booked as a monster of a threat acting as Solo Sikoa's weapon in his Bloodline. Even though we're just seeing the true magic that he can create, Mark Henry was behind Fatu from the start.

The WWE Hall of Famer spoke on the Busted Open Radio stating that he had begged WWE to sign him; however, they were hesitant due to Jacob Fatu's previous records. Henry then spoke to AEW and strongly urged them to bring The Bloodline member into the promotion but it seems like Tony Khan ignored his suggestions of signing Fatu:

"I begged before I left the WWE — you gotta bring him in. But he was in so much trouble. He was a liability. Jacob Fatu is real. He will punch you in the face and talk about your mama at the same time. That's a bad dude. Bad dude. And then I got to AEW — guys, whatever you do, you gotta bring Jacob Fatu in here. That didn't happen. Everything happened for a reason," Mark Henry said. [H/T: Gerweck]

#2. Eric Bischoff offered Tony Khan advice to focus more on storytelling

AEW has a lively roster that puts on incredible matches weekly, sometimes perhaps, at the cost of long-term storylines. Eric Bischoff has previously criticized Tony Khan over on X (fka Twitter) for several reasons, but he would at one time give a genuine piece of advice.

Speaking over on the 83 Weeks podcast, Bischoff would tell Khan to move past his childhood memories of watching wrestling and emulating that style and instead focus more on the American audience. He also expressed his concerns regarding their financial struggles and suggested they focus more on the storytelling aspect of professional wrestling:

"It’s laughable what little progress they’ve made in five or six years with the hundreds of millions of dollars that Tony Khan has invested so far. I would really focus on storytelling." Eric Bischoff said. [H/T: ITR Wrestling]

#3. Complaints regarding Toni Storm's 2024 AEW return were reportedly ignored

Toni Storm returned to a thunderous reaction at AEW Dynamite Winter is Coming in 2024, following Mariah May's win over Mina Shirakawa. The former Women's World Champion had been on a brief hiatus and returned quite unexpectedly after previously claiming she had quit professional wrestling.

Storm would then immediately be put in a match against Haley Cameron at Rampage and many people backstage were reportedly 'appalled' by this decision from Tony Khan. Bryan Alvarez reported that there were a lot of complaints that were apparently ignored, claiming that Tony Khan would do what he wanted at the end of the day.

I swear to god this is true – you could have had 200 people lined up outside Tony Khan’s door last night, one by one, all 200 of them could have gone in there and said, ‘This idea is stupid’, and do you wanna know what’d happen at the end of the night? He’d have still done it, because that’s what happens. People argue things with him every single week, and at the end of the day, he does whatever he wants.” [H/T: JTR Wrestling]

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Khan and his promotion.