Nick Khan takes a brutal dig at AEW President Tony Khan

Modified Apr 16, 2025 17:46 GMT

Tony Khan and WWE have been at loggerheads with each other. Now, Nick Khan has taken a brutal dig at the AEW boss.

When AEW first launched in 2019, the company used to hire several former WWE stars for its promotion. However, in recent years, there has been a shift in the company, which has resulted in many AEW stars jumping ship to the Stamford-based promotion. Stars like Penta, Rey Fenix, and Ricky Saints have all moved to the WWE this year and it looks like the sports entertainment juggernaut is not done hiring.

Speaking on The Bill Simmons Podcast, Nick Khan credited AEW for having a lot of talented wrestlers, but he assumes a lot of them will jump ship when their contracts are up. Additionally, he also took a dig at Tony Khan by ignoring him. However, referenced Tony's father and said he has a lot of respect for him:

“In terms of the other wrestling promotional company, they have a lot of talented wrestlers. We’re happy about that. When contractually they are available to be talked to and have conversations with, assume a number of them will come over. And nothing but respect for the father who finances it and owns the Jaguars and all those other things.” [H/T F4WOnline]

John Cena's last PPV's name revealed by Kurt Angle? More details HERE

Nick Khan also fired massive shots at AEW

Over the years, AEW has hired several wrestlers from around the world. However, this presented a massive problem for the Jacksonville-based promotion. With only limited TV time slots available per week, several stars remained unused despite being talented performers. This has gotten the promotion a lot of flak over the years.

During the same podcast episode, Nick Khan took a dig at AEW, stating that WWE only hires people they use instead of hiring wrestlers only to bench them:

“That’s something we won’t do. We won’t sign and bench people. We sign people whom we want to use. If another entity signs and benches people now, that’s not something we would do.” [H/T: F4WOnline]

It will be interesting to see if Tony Khan will respond to these digs.

About the author

Sunil is a pro wrestling journalist, covering AEW and WWE news stories at Sportskeeda. He holds an MBA degree in Marketing, and has nearly 7 years of experience. A wrestling aficionado since childhood, Sunil used to imitate his favorite wrestlers as a young kid, and started writing professionally about the sport via Sportskeeda’s revenue-sharing opportunity.

Sunil admires former world champions AJ Styles, Will Ospreay, and Kenny Omega for their ability to consistently deliver great matches as well as entertain crowds with their mic skills.

If ever given a chance to change a storyline, Sunil would have booked Roman Reigns to end The Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak instead of Brock Lesnar. According to him, The Tribal Chief needed the victory more than Brock Lesnar, as the latter was already an established performer when he defeated ‘Taker. He would’ve also made that as Taker’s final match.

Always focused on making his work accurate and reliable, Sunil thoroughly checks his facts before writing his articles. When not writing for pro wrestling, he spends his time watching cricket.

Know More

Edited by Ken Cameron