"It would open up the floodgates and embarrass him" - Wrestling veteran on what Tony Khan fears the most amidst competition with WWE

Tony Khan has received quite the pushback from WWE since Triple H took the reigns of the promotion. Recently, wrestling veteran Konnan speculated about what he believes Khan fears the most in this war against WWE.

While AEW easily defeated NXT during the "Wednesday Night Wars," the fight against WWE seems to be a different ball game entirely. So far, Dynamite appears to not be able to get past 1 million total viewers, but the more glaring issue is the AEW stars who seemingly want to jump to WWE now.

On the most recent Keepin' It 100, WCW veteran Konnan speculated that the AEW supremo might be worried about the embarrassment of releasing stars from the promotion only to see them in WWE.

"I think that Tony lives in this world where he doesn’t want anybody to think anything is wrong with his company. And I think for image reasons, [it would look] bad if he let people go and it would open up the floodgates and embarrass him. But that’s what contracts are for – a deal’s a deal and you can’t just quit," Konnan said. (02:12 onward).

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Konnan also shared what he would have done in Tony Khan's shoes.

"If I had a problem with contracted people and they wanted to leave, I would just sit their a$$ down and I’ll freeze them. You’re not going into the locker room and contaminating [it]. A deal’s a f**king deal. But, why don’t you buy out of your contract?" (02:36 onward).

While the "war" with WWE seems to be dragging on, Tony Khan might've gotten a win over Triple H when he offered a contract to a top free-agent that The Game was interested in.

Missed out on AEW Rampage? Catch up on the show's results here.

Jim Cornette believes Tony Khan has lost more viewers than fans realize

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Taking WWE head-on might have been a brave move, but Khan has had a rabid yet loyal fanbase for years. However, if AEW's recent ratings prove anything, it's that many fans have fallen off in recent months.

During a recent episode of The Jim Cornette Experience, the veteran claimed that Tony Khan is failing to measure up to WWE.

"Nobody else is walking into this tent, it’s the same group. How long are these people gonna be able to be able to fund this thing to get even with the billionaire [Vince McMahon] now that [he] is already out of the picture?" (09:35 onward.)

Only time will tell if Tony Khan ends up rebuilding AEW or if the internal issues result in the promotion going out the way that WCW and ECW did.