Tony Khan speaks on dealing with criticism.
Tony Khan has prided himself on being an accessible wrestling promotion owner. Fans can let their voices be heard not just in arenas, but on social media as well. Khan understands the importance of listening to constructive criticism. However, he also says that sometimes if the criticism is in bad faith, there's just nothing you can do.
Speaking to Fightful's Iridian Fierro for WGN Radio, Khan addressed one example of bad faith criticism in the naysayers who tried to downplay the success of AEW's debut in Wembley Stadium at AEW All In 2023.
"Well, it depends on what it is. I think a lot of it is constructive," said Khan. "Sometimes fans have a good perspective, and a lot of times it's really worth listening to the feedback. Sometimes, if it's disingenuous, there's nothing you can do. There's just not, like you said, not constructive. But I do think it's always worth hearing the fans out and hearing viewpoints. Sometimes it's fans of a different promotion that don't really have anything positive to say, no matter what you do, and that's fine.
"We sold 81,035 tickets at Wembley Stadium, and there were people trying to tear it down," Khan continued. "People were saying, 'Oh, they only got 73,000,' as if that's bad. That's more people than were at the Mike Tyson/Jake Paul fight, and people were trying to say that, like, it was a bad number for AEW, it's insane sometimes. So, you do have to be willing to take it all with a grain of salt because we've accomplished a lot with AEW, and we still have so much more to do. Really, it, in many ways, began here in Chicago. So, it's very fitting that we keep coming back here to this great city."
Elsewhere in the interview, Tony Khan spoke about licensing "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses for a music video previewing AEW Full Gear. Read his comments here.
Check out the whole card for AEW Full Gear at this link. Fightful will have full coverage of the event on November 23.
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