Tony Khan allegedly banned AEW stars from watching WWE Royal Rumble last year
A former WCW veteran recently disclosed how during one of his times working with Tony Khan he found out that he did not allow his talent to watch WWE Royal Rumble which was going on at the time. This revelation came from Konnan.
The veteran is affiliated with Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, a luchador promotion from Mexico. They have a continued relationship with AEW, as several talents from their promotion have made appearances on the Jacksonville-based promotion as well.
During a recent edition of Keepin' It 100, Konnan talked about the time when AAA worked directly with AEW, he decided to have FTR drop the AAA World Tag Team Championship to Drallistico and Dragon Lee who was with the promotion at the time. Since the luchador ended up going to WWE, Tony Khan took offense to this and confronted him about it.
“When FTR was working with us, I gave the Tag Team titles to Dragon Lee and his brother Dralistico. The next day, Dragon Lee signed with WWE. He hadn’t signed yet, but the next day he did. Well, Tony went nuts, and I had to fly over there. He went off and was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, why are you doing this? I can’t believe you did this. You stabbed me in the back, and you should have told me before,'" said Konan.
He was seemingly not a fan of his talents having talks with WWE, and the veteran confirmed this after Tony Khan seemingly did not allow talent to watch the Royal Rumble 2023 Premium Live Event at the time, which featured the return of Cody Rhodes.
So I said, ‘Basically what you’re trying to tell me is you don’t want me to work with WWE again?’ He goes, ‘No, I didn’t say that. I have two witnesses saying I didn’t say that.' But bro, he had given out that day the order that if he found out anybody was watching Cody at the Royal Rumble when he returned and won, he [Tony Khan] basically gave an edict: ‘I better not find anybody watching that show,'” he said. [H/T RSN]
You can watch his comments in the video below:
Konnan advises Tony Khan to get some help in booking his shows
In another edition of Keepin' It 100, Konnan talked about how the AEW President has also been booking his shows apart from managing the whole company. Seeing as the promotion puts on three shows a week, the veteran feels that Khan should enlist some help.
With Dynamite, Rampage, and Collision being showcased weekly, the former WCW legend advised Khan to give the job of booking to the likes of Vince Russo, and Jeff Jarrett, or even forming a team of other bookers. Should this not yield results, he could always find others as replacements. The main goal was to take at least one job off of the AEW CEO's hands.
"He's [Tony Khan] doing three shows, and I've always said, 'Give one show to Vince Russo. Give one show to Jeff Jarret, give one show to three different guys, and then let them do those shows, and if they don't give you results in six months, get rid of them and put somebody else!' You don't have to do everything!" Konnan said. [0:58 - 1:35]
However, AEW has been running for around five years now, and no changes have been made regarding the booking of talents. It remains to be seen if Tony Khan will take others' advice and let someone else take over some of his duties in the company.