AEW star says Tony Khan wanted him to have a faction: "I think you could use heaters around you"

Tony Khan is the creative head of AEW, and it has now been revealed that he had specific ideas for one professional wrestler in the company. The wrestler in question is current AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland, who revealed Khan's role in setting his character in a wrestling faction.

During his recent appearance on the Bootleg Kev podcast, Strickland ended up discussing his rapport with Prince Nana and the concept of The Mogul Embassy. The 33-year-old revealed that the merger of The Embassy and The Mogul Affiliates was Khan's idea.

The Embassy was formed by Prince Nana in Ring of Honor in 2004. In July 2022, Prince Nana reformed The Embassy with Brian Cage, Bishop Kaun, Toa Liona, and Jonathan Gresham. The faction made its AEW debut in October 2022. Later that year, Swerve Strickland formed a new stable, Mogul Affiliates, with Parker Boudreaux, Granden Goetzman, and Rick Ross.

In April 2023, Strickland merged his faction with The Embassy. The new group was later renamed ''The Mogul Embassy!''

"It was all Tony Khan. Tony Khan was like, 'I want to do a merger with the Mogul Affiliates and the Embassy; bring you two together because I think we wanna get them on AEW TV, because they are doing a lot of ROH, and I think you could use heaters around you, and I think Nana and you complement each other very well!' I was like, 'Okay, that's what the boss wants; that's what we're going to do!''' he said. [From 31:28 to 31:48]

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AEW President Tony Khan auctions off his iconic neck brace for charity

Tony Khan recently displayed an act of benevolence, as the 41-year-old auctioned off his neck brace for $100,000 and gifted the same to The Rich Eisen Show.

For those unaware, Khan was attacked by The Elite (Jack Perry, The Young Bucks, and Kazuchika Okada) on the April 24, 2024, episode of Wednesday Night Dynamite. The AEW CEO was later seen sporting a neck brace at the NFL Draft.

During his recent appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, legendary NFL host Rich Eisen revealed that when he saw Tony in a neck brace at the Draft, he hoped to auction it off for charity.

Khan, who had shown interest at the time, announced that he'd auction the brace for $100,000, the proceeds of which will go to St. Jude's Hospital. Tony also gifted the neck brace to The Rich Eisen Show.

Later, The Rich Eisen Show expressed their gratitude towards Tony Khan through an Instagram post.

"Thanks to @tonyrkhan for gifting the neck brace to us and generously donating $100,000 to #RunRichRun and #StJude!'' the post read.

Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see if Tony Khan features as an on-screen figure in the coming weeks.

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If you use the quote from the first paragraph, please credit Bootleg Kev and add H/T Sportskeeda Wrestling for transcription!