WWE legend accuses Tony Khan of copying Vince McMahon - "He’s never gonna be that guy"
Tony Khan launched AEW in 2019 and quickly became what many see as an alternative to World Wrestling Entertainment. Former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon is arguably the most successful pro wrestling promoter of all time. One major name with ties to both men just made very telling remarks about the wrestling executives.
Eric Bischoff is no stranger to the WWE founder or the AEW owner. The former WCW executive competed with McMahon and then went to work for the Stamford-based company at various points in his 38-year career. The former TNA executive made several appearances for Khan between 2020 to 2021, but since then the two have traded shots on social media and during interviews.
The former RAW General Manager discussed the wrestling bosses on his Wise Choices podcast and reacted to Goldberg's recent comments on how Khan reminds him of a male version of former TNA President Dixie Carter. Bischoff said Khan and Carter share several similarities, adding that Dixie wanted to be the female version of Vince so badly.
The former WCW Hardcore Champion clarified that he was not making fun of Carter as there's nothing wrong with wanting to be the first successful female wrestling executive, but he believes she put the main focus on this desire instead of running the company. Bischoff sees a lot of this behavior in the AEW-ROH owner.
"When that's most important, and a lot of things that should be important aren't because you're focusing too much on image and what people think of you instead of how to get where you want to be, it's a little tough to deal with. I see a lot of that with Tony, who wants so badly to be considered of Vince McMahon in his prime, or to achieve what Vince or Paul Heyman did, or probably even Yours Truly in the 1990s, to be in that fraternity of major league promoters who had a major industry impact... he's never going to be that guy," Eric Bischoff said. [From 32:46 to 33:37]
The WWE Hall of Famer continued:
"He's gonna be the guy that spent a lot of money in the industry, but will never have that impact. Nobody will have the industry impact that Vince had, ever again. It's just not going to happen. In fact, I don't think anybody will do what Paul Heyman did with ECW and have that long-lasting impact that still affects the business. Tony Khan is never going to come close to a fraction of the success of Nitro or WCW... ever, ever, ever, but he wants to be considered in that category so badly, which is why you see him out in front of everything." [From 33:38 to 34:40]
Tony Khan is making headlines as of late for his "private meeting" with WWE veteran Shane McMahon. He opened up on the matter this week and revealed interesting details on the meeting between two sons of billionaires.
Tony Khan on AEW Dynamite travel issues; updated card
The road to All In will continue tonight as AEW Dynamite airs live from LJVM Coliseum in Winston-Salem, NC.
Tony Khan took to X/Twitter to announce that there were travel issues for some talents today. He will be announcing updates to the card later on as we get closer to showtime.
Tony Khan added Mariah May vs. Viva Van to tonight's show. Matches previously announced were Katsuyori Shibata vs. Bryan Keith, American Champion MJF vs. Kyle Fletcher in a Title Eliminator, plus the Anything Goes main event between Jeff Jarrett and Bryan Danielson with special ringside guest Ricky Steamboat.