Tony Khan says the tension between WWE and AEW is real.
All Elite Wrestling was formed in 2019 and became WWE's first major competitor stateside since WCW's demise in 2001. Since the formation of AEW, many wrestlers have jumped from one company to another. Even Cody Rhodes returned to WWE in 2022 after being one of the founders of AEW.
In August 2022, Fightful Select reported that AEW held a talent meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 24. Per the report, it was noted in the meeting that AEW's Chief Legal Officer sent an e-mail to WWE's then-Co-CEOs, Nick Khan and Stephanie McMahon, about the contract tampering allegations.
In a new interview on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Tony Khan reiterated that he could not say for certain if the alleged contract tampering occurred. He only knows what he'd been told by certain talent and staff members.
"I can't really comment on what [WWE's] internal struggles are because I don't work there, and I'm not there. I can only speak to the challenges we've had," he said. "I've had a lot of wrestlers come to me and allege that WWE reached out to them to tamper with their contracts and asked them to break their contracts. I can't confirm that specifically. I can only tell you what the wrestlers have come to me and said, but I've had multiple wrestlers and staff report that to me; it was very disturbing. I've had to go out and try to put on good shows, despite this alleged tampering and stuff like that. Frankly, I don't think it stopped us because the quality of the product and the quality of the shows is at an all-time high right now."
Asked if the wrestling business is as "dirty" as the fight business, Tony Khan would say he can't speak to the latter but he does feel that the wrestling business is more organized. He would go on to say that he believes the wrestling war between AEW and WWE is a "real" war, and because of that, it makes for exciting television and draws interest from wrestling fans.
"The wrestling business is very dirty. I can't speak to the fight business," said Tony. "Certainly, I think it's more organized than the fight business. There are two well-organized promotions competing with each other. Again, I don't know if these things have happened. I only know what people have come to me and alleged, but I do know that it's a real war between AEW and WWE, and the fans are interested in it.
"That was part of the original business model of AEW," he continued. "I knew wrestling fans, frankly, are very interested in wrestling free agency and wrestling wars. I believed we could create a free agent market that is definitely a real thing now, and that would be a big part of the story. I think wrestling fans, at the end of the day, appreciate that a lot of what happens in wrestling shows is sometimes story, and that's why people like watching the shows. They like the stories and the exciting matches, and especially the combination of the two when the stories lead to exciting matches and vice versa. Now what's interesting is the story that is the most real, the most intense, and the most hatred and all of pro wrestling is that between the two wrestling promotions, I think we truly, truly hate each other. I think it makes for really exciting TV, and it makes for an exciting wrestling war."
Asked to give an example of the aforementioned "hatred," Tony Khan pointed to reports from 2021 suggesting that WWE wanted to form a business relationship with New Japan Pro-Wrestling. At the time, NJPW had just entered a business relationship with AEW. Tony Khan says New Japan confirmed that WWE tried to get them to break their budding relationship with AEW in favor of one with the sports entertainment titan.
"I'll give you a good example. About two years ago, there was a rumor I read on the internet that my business partner, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, had gotten a phone call from Nick Khan about switching over to work with them," Tony recalled. "I was really just getting started with New Japan. We only had been working together a short time. That also had been, frankly, a tumultuous relationship, but it was getting pretty good. To this day, it is an amazing partnership, and I called the New Japan executives and said, ‘Is this true? Did WWE call you and try to get you to turn on me?’ They said, ‘Yeah’ and I said, ‘Okay, well, are we still doing the stuff we have planned?’ Because at the time, we had a match set up for Wednesday Night Dynamite where there was going to be a New Japan title match in AEW. It was the first of many of those such matches, and they told me, ‘No, we don’t trust them. We wanna work with you, and we wanna stay with you.’ Ever since, our relationship has been incredibly positive.
"I don't know if that's true or not. I only know what my business partner alleged to me and what I read on the internet, and they were both the same thing," Tony added. "So following up on that, if that's the case, I know, they're out there to get me. I know they're out there to hurt AEW's relationships with our business partners if that's the case, allegedly. It made me want to work that much harder to make AEW stronger. That ended up being, probably, the biggest year for growth we've ever had."
In the past year, WWE has undergone many changes in its corporate structure. Vince McMahon briefly retired from WWE before returning to WWE's Board of Directors as the Executive Chairman in January 2023 to lead the company in a review of strategic alternatives that may include a sale of the company.
Tony Khan and his father, Shad Khan, were reported to be in the pool of potential buyers for WWE. Tony Khan hasn't commented in great detail on these reports but has noted in the past that he would be interested in the sales process if, indeed, WWE was up for sale.
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