Tony Khan says he would never want his wrestlers to worry about not being able to monetize their personal social media platforms.
In the wake of the heavy debate over an internal memo at WWE from Vince McMahon that has requested Superstars stop engaging with third-party platforms, AEW President Tony Khan weighed in on the debate as it pertains to his own wrestlers.
For Tony, he is more than okay with wrestlers monetizing their platforms but does acknowledge that there are some gray areas such as the topic of sponsorships.
“It's a very topical question. It's a good question and it's come up recently for a lot of wrestlers. For our people, I don't want people to be concerned that I'm going to stop them from trying to monetize their Twitch or even appearance money and things of that nature. I think there are gray areas,” Tony began. “I think, you know, all of these different mediums, all these platforms are different and I probably have different answers on different platforms. I think some sponsorship stuff is a gray area. You know, if one of your big star wrestlers was to go try and get a Pepsi sponsorship under their Twitch and not as a wrestler, you'd be like, well, that seems like you're trying to circumvent the company.”
He continued, “For the most part, I support people going out and trying to go out on Twitter and monetizing that platform. I'm okay with people monetizing their YouTube, which I think is very clear here because a lot of people have YouTube shows and famously, Being The Elite, The Young Bucks' show is not on the AEW channel, but we support it and our wrestlers are all over it but it's not AEW's show and I think a lot of our wrestlers have their own vlogs, and shows, and social media properties. So it's a great question.”
While Tony would acknowledge that each platform and circumstance deserves its own unique discussion, the blanket statement that people shouldn't be able to monetize outside of the company seems too strong of a stance for AEW.
“I think it's different, you know, depending on what platform you're talking about and how you're addressing it. I definitely think I wouldn't tell people they can't do anything outside the company, though, that seems too unfair and [like a] pretty strong policy.”
At AEW All Out, Kip Sabian plugged his Twitch stream while also announcing that he and Penelope Ford plan on getting married on television. Learn more at this link.
If you use any of the transcribed quotes above, please credit Fightful by linking back to this article.
