Tony Khan tipped to step down as AEW booker
A former world champion has speculated that AEW President Tony Khan might take a step back from booking his company in the near future.
Despite shows like Dark and Dark: Elevation ending earlier this year, Khan is still booking Dynamite, Rampage, Collision, and Ring of Honor by himself. On top of all of this, he also has weekly commitments with the Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFL and Fulham FC in the English Premier League.
It is because of how much he has on his plate, combined with the fact that Tony Khan is more of a fan than a businessman, that former ECW World Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas believes that Khan might be tempted to step back from booking AEW and ROH.
Here is what he had to say on his Franchise University podcast:
"Maybe it's time for Tony [Khan] to ponder the idea that maybe he's not the right guy to be running it. I'm a huge fan of pro football, [but] that doesn't mean I can go out and coach a team or be a general manager for a team. There's really a lot that goes on and goes into this, and it sounds self-serving to those of us who have been in the business, but it's true." [6:23 - 6:46]
Douglas used the likes of Dutch Mantell and Paul Heyman as examples of people who were able to have lasting legacies in the business due to the fact that they have been a part of it their whole lives, unlike Tony Khan, who only began his wrestling journey when AEW started.
"You look at someone like Dutch Mantell, or Dusty Rhodes, or Bill Watts, Paul Heyman, these are people that have spent a ton of time in and around the business. Really, their whole lives, their whole professional lives, and so when you go to Dutch and say 'hey we need to create a character that does something like this, and I want it to be a person about this big, and I want it to wear dress like that,' and when Dutch comes back and says 'well I would change this to that, maybe put a tinker this and tinker that and boom do that,' he probably has a pretty good idea what he's talking about," Shane Douglas said. [6:46 - 7:13]
Tony Khan has loaded this week's edition of AEW Dynamite
While some people might think that he has too much on his plate, Tony Khan still has the capabilities to load his shows with some of the most exciting wrestling around, and this week's episode of Dynamite looks to be no different.
The October 25 edition of Dynamite will air from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and will feature a number of exciting matches, including Rob Van Dam and Hook vs. The Dark Order, Hikaru Shida against Ruby Soho for the AEW Women's World Championship, and The Young Bucks and 'Hangman' Adam Page defending the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship against The Hardys and Isiah Kassidy.
Fans in Philly will also see the Dynamite debut of Kazuchika Okada as he teams up with Orange Cassidy to take on Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli, while MJF will defend his Dynamite Diamond Ring against Juice Robinson.
Do you think Tony Khan should step away from booking AEW? Let us know in the comments section below.
Please credit Franchise University with Shane Douglas if you use quotes from this article and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.