"He's in good hands" – WWE Legend on Tony Khan needing help in booking AEW shows (Exclusive)
Dutch Mantell indicated that while AEW President Tony Khan should get help booking shows, he claimed the latter would be fine as long as there were no creative disputes.
Aside from being the President & CEO, Khan is also the General Manager and Head Booker for AEW and was hailed as Booker of the Year by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter in 2020 and 2021. Khan's booking abilities have garnered praise from Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, and Britt Baker, among others.
However, on this week's Smack Talk, Mantell was skeptical about how long Khan would book multiple shows as he also supervises Ring of Honor. Mantell said producers like Dean Malenko, Jerry Lynn, and Pat Buck should help Khan in the booking department.
Mantell also noted the creative freedom of wrestlers such as Jericho and Bryan Danielson. He added that the AEW President would be fine as long as they have a system:
"They gotta help, they gotta help. Well, I think [Chris] Jericho has control over what he does and probably some guys have (...) and I think Bryan Danielson, I think he has control. But as long as they are worked within the system and they're not hotheads and demand stuff out of Tony [Khan], he's in good hands." (from 57:47 to 58:17)
Check out the latest edition of Smack Talk below:
Check out the full results of this week's Rampage here.
Booker T previously reacted to AEW President Tony Khan's hiring strategy
During an episode of The Hall of Fame, Booker T gave his thoughts on Khan's hiring of established stars. Booker said Khan was building AEW based on what's going on right now:
“I don’t think you need to build for the future, I think you need to build for the right now. You know, the future will play out as far as what AEW is going to turn in to, but I think the right now as far as what we got to really got to focus on, we can’t worry how old these guys are, we’ve just got to think about their star power. If they’ve got star power, we can bring them in and we can utilise that.”
Colleagues joining fans in celebrating this moment for Claudio Castagnoli’s #AEW debut. Speaks volumes to the respect they have for him.
https://t.co/xsXhOvfnL5
Khan partnered successfully with New Japan Pro Wrestling at Forbidden Door on June 26. On July 23, the Khan era of ROH will have its' second pay-per-view, Death Before Dishonor. It'll be interesting to see how the event turns out.
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