Did AJ Styles and Abyss take a shot at Tony Khan and AEW with their segment on WWE SmackDown?
So, this week on WWE SmackDown, we saw a TNA reunion between two of the men who carried the brand on their backs for years on end, engaging in some furious battles. They are Joseph Park, whom you may otherwise know as Abyss in a rare WWE SmackDown appearance and AJ Styles, the face of the franchise for many years, who came together on WWE SmackDown to possibly take a shot at AEW and Tony Khan. Who would have imagined that AJ Styles and Abyss would be reunited on SmackDown?
How did AJ Styles and Abyss take a shot at AEW and Tony Khan on WWE SmackDown?
We know that Tony Khan, the man who runs AEW is someone with a background in analytics and statistics, something that he has been quite vocal about. We also know that he has used this expertise when it comes to booking the AEW roster as well, where there is a ranking system to determine where one is on the card, where each win and loss matters.
In fact, the fact that the whole exercise on WWE SmackDown was dubbed as PI** by AJ Styles could be a reference to the fact that he was taking the pi** out of AEW, a company that has been making a lot of noise about beating WWE in certain key demographics. So much so, that AJ Styles' former tag team partner Chris Jericho has dubbed himself a Demo God.
Was this WWE's way of telling the competition that certain demographics and segments don't matter when AEW's ratings fall short in terms of overall viewership numbers? You be the judge of that.
Of course, as anyone that watched the segment with AJ Styles and Abyss on WWE SmackDown may be aware, this was a segment that really went nowhere at all, where AJ Styles went on to say that there was nobody in the same league as he was. Jeff Hardy would show up eventually and a match would be made official for the following week's episode of WWE SmackDown.
One has to wonder if Joseph Park or Abyss, as he is more popularly known, was playing the part of Tony Khan too in this instance, because of the way he was portrayed. It should become clearer in the following weeks, where we see more of Abyss or Joseph Park in action. In fact, it would be interesting to see whether 'The Monster Abyss' decides to show up eventually.
And so, the whole ranking system that AJ Styles and Abyss parodied this week on WWE SmackDown seemed like a shot at Tony Khan and AEW. Hey, next week's episode of AEW Dynamite will not happen on a Wednesday and so, it makes all the sense in the world for other WWE brands to also take a shot at AEW.
There have been volleys from both sides in the past, most notably in an interview that was conducted by Sportskeeda Wrestling featuring Kenny Omega, where he had some incendiary things to say about WWE NXT. You can catch it in its entirety right here.
And this week's shot on WWE SmackDown from AJ Styles and Abyss isn't even the first time that WWE has taken the fight to AEW. It is believed that the character of Robert Stone from NXT is loosely based upon Tony Khan.
How AEW and Tony Khan choose to respond to this whole segment with AJ Styles and Abyss on WWE SmackDown is anyone's guess, but one has to remember that Brodie Lee's character is a parody of Vince McMahon too. That's why his name is Mr. Brodie Lee.
Tony Khan is a lot more difficult to parody because the AEW boss isn't an on-screen character. Thankfully, we haven't seen Tony Khan drop his trousers on AEW television yet.
Do you think that WWE and Vince McMahon trading shots with Tony Khan and AEW in this manner can be dubbed petty? If so, please leave a comment in the section below.