Tony Khan's father wasn't always supportive of AEW; surprising new details emerge
Tony Khan is the president and head booker of AEW. However, the 42-year-old recently revealed that his father, Shahid Khan, had some doubts about the idea of All Elite Wrestling.
AEW was launched in 2019, and it quickly became a top promotion in the United States. The company's ability to be an alternative to WWE helped it attract many talents like Jay White, Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, Christian Cage, and more. However, Tony Khan recently revealed an interesting detail from the time when All Elite Wrestling was just an idea.
At the All In Texas 2025 media event, Tony Khan was interviewed by Denise Salcedo. The 42-year-old was asked about what Shahid Khan thought about All Elite Wrestling. Tony revealed that his father was not on board with the idea at the start due to the absence of necessary resources to build a global wrestling promotion.
However, Tony also stated that his father is proud of how he has been able to make the promotion a ''huge sports franchise.''
"Well, I think my dad is a big, big supporter 'now' of AEW. At the beginning, it was kind of a knockdown, drag-out fight to get this done. But he's also gone on the record and said it's like something that has made him really proud, seeing how big AEW has gotten, how big of an operation we've built, and we built a huge sports franchise, a global powerhouse,'' he said.
The AEW CEO added:
''I think he's really happy and proud of it, but at the beginning, I know he was nervous, and rightfully so, because when we launched AEW, we didn't have a TV deal; we had nothing. We just had the support of fans all over the world." [5:54-6:29]
Eric Bischoff calls AEW CEO Tony Khan a ''clown''
Eric Bischoff has always been open about his point of view of All Elite Wrestling. The former RAW GM has frequently slammed the product and CEO Tony Khan for the booking decisions. However, Khan does not seem to be bothered by Bischoff's comments.
In a recent edition of his 83 Weeks podcast, the WWE Hall of Famer called the AEW President a ''clown'' and even took jabs at Dave Meltzer.
"It's a joke like everything else that comes out of AEW and especially Tony Khan's mouth; you can't take it seriously. I don't know between he and Dave Meltzer; I don't think we've seen goalposts being moved as frequently, and as far as these two clowns continue to try to move goalposts to make AEW look like something other than an abject f*****g failure," Bischoff said. [H/T: Wrestling Inc.]
We will have to wait and see if Tony or Meltzer responds to Eric Bischoff's comments.