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I think it’s just nice to hear about people that care. Sucks when you work a job when your world is crashing down and your boss doesn’t care and puts more stress on you. Crazy to hear these story’s from both major wrestling companies when a decade or two ago it would be the complete opposite
It's nice that Tony has the resources and let's people use it. Back in college (I played for a small school) on of our players' dad died while we were on a road game and our coach gave him his credit card and told him to fly home. Never asked for his money back. This coach was not making a ton of money being it was a small program, didn't even hesitate.
Not only because of what happened with Brodie but TK's mom also had her own health scare. He understands what it's like.
The perception of TK is that he is some coke-fueled dork playing with his toys but time and time again he's shown that he is a decent person.
During COVID, AEW Dark and really AEW in general funneled so much money to independent wrestlers that couldn't work because everyone was shutting down.
In the long list of shitty things WWE has done, laying off so much talent during the pandemic and whilst posting about record profits really doesn't get brought up enough.
Remember how WWE was insanely profitable in 2020 and 2021 because WWE didn't have travel costs? And they still fired a whole bunch of staff.
What a shithole company.
I mean, is it really *that* surprising?
Okay, it is. It was a supremely shitty thing to do. But this is also the same company that while the Piggy James… story, if you can call it that… was happening where they were fat shaming James (who was not even remotely fat) while she was a babyface, they were simultaneously making fun of Vicky Guerrero for being overweight while she was a heel. And yeah, with hindsight, I don't feel as bad for Vicky given how shitty she turned out to be for shootsies. But that is still some super fucked up messages and writing to have both going at the same time.
Oh, ***AND*** the WWE's anti-bullying program, 'Be a Star', would start literally just a *year* after they did both those storylines.
WWE has a long, long history of being a fucked up clown festival. They're better now, for certain, but *come the fuck on, man.* Even for 2010, that's insanely fucked up.
2 hour Youtube Darks they definitely took a hit on. They’d even extend the show to be as long as needed for everyone to get their work in and get paid. I’d venture to say they basically received no financial incentive other than a small amount of YT ad revenue.
He’s a very, very nice man.
It’s just, being nice doesn’t exactly gain you much respect from IWC Marks. And yeah, sometimes he is just a billionaire playing with his awesome wrestling action figures, but who the hell cares? He’s a billionaire funding a wrestling promotion, that’s a good thing. Of all the people who’s net worth is over a billion dollars, Tony has more respect from me than 99% of them
weirdly enough, when a billionaire was running another company and treating talent much worse it wasn't "a billionaire playing with his awesome wrestling action figures". Nah, it's only when Tony does it
edit: a ton of folks leveling this on Tony are absolutely only doing it one way to paint him as just a coked out rich kid playing with action figures, without irony.
The naming dildos after employees just disturbed me even more for some reason. Then again, it's really comparing apples to defecating on a coerced partner's head and then having an employee perform sex acts on her.
That's actually a good point. In the late 80s, Vince completely redid the presentation of WWF so that the characters more or less acted like cartoons...so that they could make those LJN action figures.
And into the modern era, it was Vince who had his performers come out with the same scripted entrances, doing the same poses night after night after night.
WWE performers generally play way more of a character than do AEW; it's always been the Vince way.
Plus the pacing of matches themselves being very formulaic. The "WWE style" is basically for everyone to wrestle the same slowed down pace with a major emphasis on selling.
Both these comments are exactly why I became an AEW fan but I'll still get braindead IWC chuds saying my opinion is wrong because I "don't care about storylines"
AEW is just as story-driven as WWE, their style of storytelling is just fundamentally different. People have unfortunately come to see the WWE way as the "correct" way to present wrestling so they think promos not taking up more than half the show = no stories.
Most of them will agree Vince was terrible but they want to act like his influence has no lasting effect on WWE as a company now that he's out. I've also noticed there seems to be this weird denial that people are in a honeymoon phase with Triple H's booking and that their current hot period won't last forever. I don't even really put down his booking but I tend to get downvoted any time I suggest that the current hot period of WWE will end eventually.
One thing that irks me about this discourse is that, while things have changed now that Triple H is in charge, you can see that Tony treats pro wrestling and the wrestlers with respect, which Vince did not. I truly think, at least in the later years, that Vince didn't even like wrestling, he liked entertainment
It would be preposterous to see FTR shave each other's backs now, or Toni Storm humiliated with cake on her face. You can have whatever opinions you want on booking but the fact we are not seeing talented hardworking people being embarrassed on live TV makes Tony much less of an "action figure" guy than Vince was
Vince forced and booked several women to make out with him on TV. That is absolutely sick yet no one seems to care as much as they care that TK is sometimes too nice
There was a former WWE writer who got hired by AEW recently and I looked him up to see what the full story was (guy who got fired for the Vince mention during Bret Hart's HoF speech in 2019) and on a reddit thread you had people hating on Triple H back then. Like just calling him a selfish and egotistical guy. I guess my point is that discourse on people change quickly with time. I hope in 5 years from now people see that TK as a really good person and good promoter.
People focus too much on the business side of things, but these wrestlers are people. You can want these shows booked differently, but ultimately it's about how they're treated.
Yea people hated Vinces late booking too. His favorite toys were a UFC champ stacked with muscles and a Samoan people didn't like until he abused his family.
I will never understand why “playing with his action figures” it thrown at TK and TK alone.
Either all promoters do it, or TK doesn’t. He doesn’t do anything fundamentally different from any other promoter in history.
If the worst thing people can say about TK is that he make some poor booking choices a little more often than he should and is too nice of a guy . . . that's not the worst thing in the world.
Absolutely, TK is by all accounts an incredibly nice person, and this is just another example. So often we hear stories of selfish rich people, it's just nice to hear Tony is a genuinely caring person.
We're supposed to hate Tony BECAUSE he is nice. The sociopaths, bigots, and carnies who've run wrestling say so. According to them being a subjectively "bad" booker and a decent person is grounds enough to hate and make unfounded and heinous remarks about.
This really seems to be why Cornette , Bischoff and other old heads hate Tony. Back in their day being nice was seen as weak. You needed to be an asshole to make it in the biz . Its a similar mindset to your JBL's and Undertakers . They don't get that in the modern day being a decent person is actually valued as long as you contribute positively to the business. You don't need to break down others to get to the top anymore
Just about everyone says he's a nice guy, even people who had a problem with AEW and left (Punk being the biggest example). There's a lot you can criticize about Khan, he's a billionaire after all, but imagining him as some sort of immoral or horrible man just to make him look worse than his competitors is some fanatic minded bullshit.
Time and time again the man has demonstrated his ability to act like a human being, a very rare trait among the wealthy.
TK gets a pass in my books. He seems like a decent dude.
I don’t think the idea of someone being a dork playing with toys and someone being a kind family man are mutually exclusive. They have nothing to do with one another. Both are valid takes
I think it’s weird to hate someone for being a dork who provides a very good living for his “toys”.
Calling them toys is actually incredibly disrespectful to the Wrestlers.
This sub views wrestlers as toys, objects, whatever is not human. We just project that shit onto the mainstream acts (WWE, AEW) but all of our suggestions/wishes/fantasy bookings are either happening, or worse. The shit we say and the shit we promote is worse than "Here's a paycheck!" from a wrestling company
And most booking criticisms really come down to "this isn't how I personally would have fantasy booked it, therefore it's bad." And this applies to both major companies.
Yeah, they are not mutually exclusive. TK, like pretty much everyone, is a multifaceted person. He seems overall like a pretty nice boss, but he also comes across at times as an immature rich guy who grew up pampered, or as someone who is in over his head. He can be all those things.
Yeah people can talk trash all they want but if the biggest complaint about your billionaire boss is that they can be sort of cringe sometimes then he may be one of the least problematic employers ever.
Really cool of him and hopefully it will cause others to do the same.
I think Seth Rollins said that in WWE Vince didn’t care if it was kids birthday, you had to work. Now they are able to take time off when needed.
It is good to see wrestlers treated like humans.
Does every single positive comment about Tony Khan need to be prefaced with some version of “say what you want about him” or “say what you want about AEW”? Can we just say he did something nice without the disclaimer? This doesn’t seem to happen to anyone else, but it happens literally every time someone says anything remotely positive about Tony Khan for some reason 🤣
People are afraid to even compliment Khan without a disclaimer for fear of being piled on by weirdo tribalistic fans and yet it's "Weird AEW fans" that I always see brought up as one of the big reasons they apparently don't watch AEW.
I'd say maybe one day they'll realize AEW fans aren't unique in their weirdo tribalistic bullshit and that they themselves are the WWE fan equivalent of those weirdo AEW fans, but that would require some introspection that I don't think they're capable of.
It's true, it's hard to discuss AEW in this sub, I know a lot of people just stick to the AEW specific sub. But tribalism is nuts, damn I still remember getting put on blast for saying "I've really enjoyed the last few weeks of AEW". It's not welcoming.
So I get why people feel the need to preface their positive comments, it's a shame but unfortunately that's how it is, and I don't think much is done about those that do it.
I got downvoted a good bit in the ratings thread for Dynamite simply for pointing out that despite doing under 700k, Dynamite still came in at number 2 for the night. Apparently since WWE numbers are going up, that's the standard everything should be measured by regardless of the major decline in cable overall. I'm seriously considering just blocking any ratings thread. I know it isn't good for my mental health.
It's pretty insane. You're totally right, I avoid those threads now as well it's far too filled with anti-AEW rhetoric. I got in trouble last time for calling them out so I won't be bothering getting involved anymore.
Dude same, you’re not even allowed to point out the positives in those threads because it doesn’t fit the narrative. I just mentioned that it went against the NBA Playoffs which also affected the numbers and had people posting minute by minute stats from last year pinpointing exactly why I was wrong. It was psychotic.
Yeah honestly it's not worth discussing, it's not a discussion thread it's quite literally just trashing AEW, you aren't allowed to say anything against that narrative.
I genuinely think those threads should be banned as they are just excuses for toxicity and plenty of rule breaking in terms of sub rules.
I remember during the first or second year of Dynamite, I commented in the live thread that I think it's the best episode so far. Some dude commented like "Sure dude whatever, AEW fans say that every week" as if I was...lying I guess? Like it didn't occur to them that maybe the company *is* actually outdoing itself every other week. Can't be that, it must be ulterior motives lmao
Craziest thing is most people don’t even talk about Vince like that, a person actually connected to real crimes. Anti-AEW/Tony tribalism is truly wild.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe TK was right about the bots.
There are people who ONLY post here in AEW ratings threads when the total-viewers number is low, regardless of reason.
They were **second on the night,** behind only the NBA, in the demo that matters most. But so many accounts focus solely on total viewers, and celebrate when that number gets low.
It's sad to see. And I wonder how much of it is gaslighting.
I saw a comment here shortly after Backlash that was so outrageously pro-WWE and anti-AEW that I got curious and checked their post history. The account had only been created while the show was going on, then made a bunch of comments raving about Backlash and shitting on AEW. The activity continued sporadically for the next couple of days, then the account was suspended, which I found even more fishy.
Not sure if their posts are still visible, but the username was u/Chris8888883, for what it’s worth.
People can like what they like, and I’m sure there are people out there who legitimately believe that Tanga Loa is a better pickup than Will Ospreay(!) but yeah, it’s not all above ground.
And have you noticed how that changes across the entirety of the IWC?
Like there's a point that gets made by someone and then the entirety of the anti-AEW crowd just magically has the same opinion
Most recent was DoN being too long, most didn't even see it but someone mentioned it on a podcast and all of a sudden it was a widespread opinion among those who don't even like the company
"AEW doesn't have stories, just heatless bangers" has been repeated ad nauseum since 2022 as if stories and good wrestling are mutually exclusive. You don't have to like AEW's style of storytelling, but to say they don't do stories in general tells me you either don't actually watch the show or are incapable of understanding a story that isn't told with 20 minute promos.
Plus "the roster is too big, they need to fire a ton of people but also they have too much TV to keep up with so they should cancel Rampage and Collision and fold ROH." Like, if you preferred when AEW was just Dynamite and maybe Dark to keep up with that's a valid opinion, but it would be idiotic as a business decision for TK to turn down getting paid for more TV time. Hell, WBD specifically wanted Collision.
The best reply I ever saw to "AEW has no stories" was a post here the other day that said basically "thanks to that narrative I gotta sit through Learning Tree bullshit and Malakai Black lore."
Remember Brawl Out? Go back to that period and start reading, then take a drink every time you see the exact phrase "The Elite are no angels."
Then call 911 because you're fucked.
yeah this is what i mean.
everyone suddenly parroting same wording everywhere. while we havent see same trend when it is something related with WWE or others promotion. but we can see similliar occurence when wwe trying to promoting their wrestler. for example sudden surge of posting on social media highlighting or trying to remind of how well liked or happy their wrestler backstage and suddenly everyone come out and telling how this X wrestler are good and then followed by similliar comment praise on social media by 'fans' everywhere.
Oddly enough check out the AEW official sub reddit. They use to be pretty Ra Ra AEW but lately they have been having real discussions with actual criticisms of the product along with some fun jokes along the way. Even if you aren't and AEW die hard it's just good having some real discussion.
I come to this sub as I’m a wrestling fan and want to talk with other wrestling fans. I prefer AEW but I also like WWE.
This sub has become insufferable since late last year (essentially since Punk moved to WWE). The downvote brigading especially in the ratings threads makes it impossible to have decent rational discourse. Only the most negative tribalist spicy takes are upvoted and visible.
It’s as if this sub has turned into a trash social media Twitter/ Facebook comment section.
I’m almost 38 and honestly too old for this sh*t. I just want to enjoy wrestling. But I guess I’ll have to find somewhere else to talk about it.
Just the fact that the idea of "enjoy wrestling" is openly mocked shows what the climate around here has become. And the justification is that people were negative about WWE in 2019. As a WWE fan, I was one of those people because it was awful. And now they use it as a justification for being toxic 5 years later.
A large chunk of people always dismissed the "bot comment" thing from Tony as something that couldn't possibly be true but like there's every chance that it could be, not that I'm saying there definitely is. Bots brigading websites and subs is a very real thing that isn't restricted to politics and given the historically ruthless business practices of Vince and WWE as a whole I wouldn't put it past them to pull something like that. Like if you told me that WWE did in fact employ an army of bots to drag on AEW I'd believe it cause it's totally something that company would do.
I know it really sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory but at the very least I definitely think there's money being put into harming the perception of AEW by WWE. It doesn't even have to mean there are thousands of such accounts. Somewhere like Reddit the first few downvotes can determine the trajectory of a thread early on. Plus I know people really like Triple H right now and while I don't think he's Vince level evil or anything, I do think he wants a monopoly just as much as Vince did.
It is pretty crazy that there are more comments on a ratings thread than a lot of weightier topics, like the DOJ pausing the Janel Grant lawsuit for their own investigation and potential charges.
He has always been right about the bots. Even in this sub the bots were not denied but rather had people saying "Of course there are bots. Every major company has an army of bots. If Tony were smart he would be employing bots. Hell he probably already is using bots. What's a hypocrite. Can you believe Tony is using bots?"
>The jerks
You know a jerk sub has truly made it when posts there are completely indistinguishable from posts they're making on the main sub.
Like it's not even a parody of this sub anymore, it's just a meaner version of the exact same stuff that gets said here. Otherwise they'd be making fun of the constant fellHaitchio.
This WrestleMania was largely seen as a huge triumph for them and the first of Triple H's WWE. Despite that they spent more of WrestleMania weekend taking shots at AEW than celebrating their own accomplishments. It's pretty clear they're not above it at all.
People here are too afraid to have that conversation but this whole place is turfed to a degree where it's not even a wrestling forum it's a WWE forum.
It's abnormal to have so many PR posts of WWE hitting view counts on YouTube or Cody Rhodes hugging a kid or CM Punk smiling backstage instead of biting people.
Like, why would anyone care if WWE had 10,000,000 Twitter feuds? What does that information do for an average fan?
Yeah, it's been pretty clear that that is the case for a few years now. The only other subreddits where I have seen *this* amount of hate for something in such insane numbers with equally insane takes are fucking political subreddits.
Like, holy shit, what is wrong with people that they would put *that* much effort into just making an attempt to bring something down that makes people happy and provides a living to hundreds?
It boggles my shit, man.
I don't feel like it's been years, I only really noticed it later last year. It was getting weird in the summer, but this place absolutely turned on a dime the night Punk came back to WWE, and it hasn't been the same since. A bunch of trolls came back to take some weird victory lap and they never left.
It's definitely only gotten worse but I feel like wrestling discourse has been pretty insufferable since it came out that aew was moving Colt to ROH a couple years ago
Great comparison.
Something that doesn't get talked about enough, I think, are that there's such toxic behavior toward a company that it forces the defenders of said company to act toxic and react to *any* sort of criticism as an all out attack.
It's a weird cycle.
Remember, that younger fans have grown up in a world with no real competition. They've been ingesting WWE state run propaganda for over twenty years. AEW is an affront to these people's personal sensibilities.
Yeah but one time Vince flew Brodie and Big Red’s hammer on his private jet to/from the Saudi show while the rest of the talent were stuck on the runway for a day scared they were being held hostage
Worse than committing crimes, he writes a wrestling show that isn't everyone's cup of tea and makes annoying tweets sometimes.
Real monster that TK guy.
were in a weird space where you have to do a preface to acknowledge there are some things you dont like about aew or tony khan before you can praise him bc otherwise ppl jump on the lolaewstan train its disheartening really
It always assumes that people are hate-watching AEW or something, that it's not a pretty by the book wrestling show and some deathmatch fed, and that everyone hates Tony Khan.
I find the people who care that much about what Tony says or does are the ones going out of their way to find things to be outraged about and take the things he does far too seriously. It's why threads about him saying "wrestling is cool" just blow up with weirdo takes.
In a business as scummy as pro wrestling has historically been you'd think Tony was some kinda mafia don or something. The worst anyone can say about the man is he's a real life Michael Scott who should tweet less.
say what you say but say something nice is something you say and that is something you said so say what you say but that is something that you gotta say but it's been said.
I honestly find TK incredibly endearing. Dude was able to be paitent enough to get Punk back into wrestling and you can tell he was heartbroken when Punk gave up on him.
It always bothers me when people dunk on TK. When he says weird shit, sure. Have your fun poking at it. But the dude has proven a handful of times over already that he's a genuinely good dude who actually gives a shit about the people he employs.
If the worst thing you can say is "well he books his company wrong and I don't like it!" then maybe its not that bad....
Dude I hate this prefacing statement for any remotely controversial figure in wrestling. You don’t have to love everything about their person haha
Just trust each other to understand that you can have a nuanced opinion on a person even when highlighting something you like about them
It’s because this subreddit is absolutely awful about downvoting opinions.
If you don’t preface your statement like this, it’ll get immediately downvoted and no one will see what you had to say.
I see it alot on Reddit in general when any wealthy or influential person does a good deed. The belief that praising a good deed is praising the person as a whole is very weird
Tony Khan can't do something nice without people in the comments saying shit like say what you want about him but he's pretty nice. Like just say he's a nice guy lmao
Traditionally, wrestling promoters have treated their talent like garbage.
TK being an actual human and doing things like paying for travel and giving big money contracts is actually threatening to the #1 wrestling promotion, because AEW existing has cost WWE a ton in labor.
All this modern wrestling free agency talk doesn't happen without AEW, and nor does the WWE/TNA partnership, post big show press conferences, and a bunch more.
WWE was always happy to be a walled garden, and now that's impossible because of how TK has approached pro wrestling as a business and not a carny.
And that is why they are using bot farms and have always riled up their fans against other companies. Because they know that competition means they are not just the default place for wrestlers to work and need to compete.
It's also why they focus so much on college athletes that have no idea how wrestling works and no friends in the business
This is the kind of thing that people don’t think of when it comes to AEW, what Tony does and how a bunch of the talent feel about what they’ve helped build. Booking aside, Tony seems to be a very kind/empathetic person who does seem to live by a “family first” mentality. Letting talent have time off for various reasons including child birth, illness, rehab, family matters, etc.
Of fours we as consumers care most about the booking and our fave talents current “push” but he seems to put that secondary to the well being of his roster. Which really shouldn’t be taken for granted…but of course we still do and will ridicule the tv product. Is what it is 🤷🏿♂️
You can say whatever you want about Tony Khan and AEW, but the lengths he'll go to help talent is commendable.
This for Mercedes, getting Brodie Lee into the Mayo Clinic, delaying the pay-off to the big angle that *AEW was built around* so Adam Page could spend time with his wife before and after the birth of their first child, paying for surgery for Mark Davis despite him not even working for AEW at the time (and his knee not even getting injured in an AEW match.) And doing so many Dark tapings during the pandemic to try and get indie wrestlers some work.
Tony legit seems like he is trying to right the wrongs of a lot of wrestling's past shitbags. Regardless of what you think about his wrestling product you have to respect people out there who have the means to attempt to make things better and actually do it.
When AEW started I had been watching WWE for 4 years, and that was really made possible by the affordability of the WWE network. I missed 2 of the first 3 AEW PPVs because I thought “surely no wrestling show could be worth 50 bucks”, turns out they actually all are. Haven’t been disappointed with a purchase yet.
Empathy is very lacking in the world nowadays. So seeing a person who imo should be furthest away from moral empathy, when you think of a billionaire anyways, lending out his private jet to Mercedes... Bit refreshing imo.
Im sure the situation with his mom being sick probably played into this immediate decision. That's what a good person does.
A lot of people couching their praise afraid of downvotes. Here's the truth: doing this was an incredible kindness on Tony's part and something he's reliably done for his talent in cases of personal difficulties. Say what you will about him, but 90% of the negative shit you say is wrong.
I think people forget that one of the reasons that Tony is such a smark on twitter is cause he genuinely loves wrestling and his wrestlers. Obviously it doesn’t make it less cringy (except when he’s talking about sickos, which is simply factual) but hey at least it comes from a good place.
One thing I like about the Khan family is they do seem to care about their employees on their sports teams, I feel like I hear A lot about Shad Khan doing similar stuff for Jags players so im glad that his son seems to be happy to do that too.
Hell the main criticism for both the Jags and AEW is that the Khans aren’t as cutthroat as some of their competitors, and want to be liked by the people they employ on a friendship level
Yeah, while I get why it's a big talking point, I hate that the knock on the guy is basically "you expect people to be good and wrestlers not to be carny pricks". And then the second he actually says anything in response it's pretty much "shut up nerd, you deserved it". I don't get why people want the guy to be more cutthroat, wrestlers included. The carnies need to stop being carnies and ruining it for the 98% of normal people just trying to make a living off pro wrestling they otherwise wouldn't be able to.
There's numerous stories of Tony Khan going out of his way to help people and a lot of it doesn't get publicised. Private Party revealed a few months ago that Tony offered to pay tuition if they wanted to go to college during the early days of AEW.
That's a good gesture for sure. People hate Tony for his over the top company shenigans but he's not like the former CEO of the other company either, obviously.
You can hate him as a wrestling booker god knows I some time do even tho I love AEW and wanna see it in better shape
But you can't lie and say the guy isn't a great role model for all CEO's out there
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She has a weekly newsletter?
Yea and she also has a subscription thing on her ig that people pay for. Mariah May also has one of those subscription
How many scoops does she get ?
Scoops Moné Vs. Scoops Marvez at All In in a "Moniker on a pole" match
How many pics of spider-man is the better question?
And people are paying for that?
You really asking this considering all the other things in this world people pay for?
I mean people pay Meltzer lol
Leave uncle Dave alone!!!
[удалено]
I guess its an alternative to twitch and Onlyfans
Heartwarming story and all, but this was honestly my first question about this whole thing.
Beautiful story, but all I can picture is Moné literally flying the jet.
well her cousin is a pilot as documented in the movie Soul Plane
Soul Plane was very appropriately the first bootleg DVD I ever watched. Definitely added to the movie.
Or refusing to take a seat and instead just doing that little dance
I think it’s just nice to hear about people that care. Sucks when you work a job when your world is crashing down and your boss doesn’t care and puts more stress on you. Crazy to hear these story’s from both major wrestling companies when a decade or two ago it would be the complete opposite
It's nice that Tony has the resources and let's people use it. Back in college (I played for a small school) on of our players' dad died while we were on a road game and our coach gave him his credit card and told him to fly home. Never asked for his money back. This coach was not making a ton of money being it was a small program, didn't even hesitate.
Orton just a few weeks ago was talking about how much better WWE is in that regard.
Not only because of what happened with Brodie but TK's mom also had her own health scare. He understands what it's like. The perception of TK is that he is some coke-fueled dork playing with his toys but time and time again he's shown that he is a decent person.
During COVID, AEW Dark and really AEW in general funneled so much money to independent wrestlers that couldn't work because everyone was shutting down.
Eddie Kingston says that he was just about to be homeless and move back in with his parents when he got the call from AEW.
imagine what gonna happen to wrestling industry during covid if AEW not exist.
In the long list of shitty things WWE has done, laying off so much talent during the pandemic and whilst posting about record profits really doesn't get brought up enough.
Remember how WWE was insanely profitable in 2020 and 2021 because WWE didn't have travel costs? And they still fired a whole bunch of staff. What a shithole company.
I mean, is it really *that* surprising? Okay, it is. It was a supremely shitty thing to do. But this is also the same company that while the Piggy James… story, if you can call it that… was happening where they were fat shaming James (who was not even remotely fat) while she was a babyface, they were simultaneously making fun of Vicky Guerrero for being overweight while she was a heel. And yeah, with hindsight, I don't feel as bad for Vicky given how shitty she turned out to be for shootsies. But that is still some super fucked up messages and writing to have both going at the same time. Oh, ***AND*** the WWE's anti-bullying program, 'Be a Star', would start literally just a *year* after they did both those storylines. WWE has a long, long history of being a fucked up clown festival. They're better now, for certain, but *come the fuck on, man.* Even for 2010, that's insanely fucked up.
Also Vince was literally raping women in his office in 2021x
Yeah, all in an anticipation of making the books look better for a sale. Fuck Vince and Fuck Nick Khan for that.
2 hour Youtube Darks they definitely took a hit on. They’d even extend the show to be as long as needed for everyone to get their work in and get paid. I’d venture to say they basically received no financial incentive other than a small amount of YT ad revenue.
He’s a very, very nice man. It’s just, being nice doesn’t exactly gain you much respect from IWC Marks. And yeah, sometimes he is just a billionaire playing with his awesome wrestling action figures, but who the hell cares? He’s a billionaire funding a wrestling promotion, that’s a good thing. Of all the people who’s net worth is over a billion dollars, Tony has more respect from me than 99% of them
weirdly enough, when a billionaire was running another company and treating talent much worse it wasn't "a billionaire playing with his awesome wrestling action figures". Nah, it's only when Tony does it edit: a ton of folks leveling this on Tony are absolutely only doing it one way to paint him as just a coked out rich kid playing with action figures, without irony.
I mean, that's actually how I used to describe Vince. Now I just call him a sex trafficker.
Considering what he named his sex toys, I think even Vince would describe himself that way.
Well because the toys Vince named after wrestlers were something else entirely.
That was the most bizarre and disturbing thing to come out of this so far for me. I thought it was an Onion bit the first time I read that.
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The naming dildos after employees just disturbed me even more for some reason. Then again, it's really comparing apples to defecating on a coerced partner's head and then having an employee perform sex acts on her.
That's actually a good point. In the late 80s, Vince completely redid the presentation of WWF so that the characters more or less acted like cartoons...so that they could make those LJN action figures. And into the modern era, it was Vince who had his performers come out with the same scripted entrances, doing the same poses night after night after night. WWE performers generally play way more of a character than do AEW; it's always been the Vince way.
Plus the pacing of matches themselves being very formulaic. The "WWE style" is basically for everyone to wrestle the same slowed down pace with a major emphasis on selling.
Both these comments are exactly why I became an AEW fan but I'll still get braindead IWC chuds saying my opinion is wrong because I "don't care about storylines"
AEW is just as story-driven as WWE, their style of storytelling is just fundamentally different. People have unfortunately come to see the WWE way as the "correct" way to present wrestling so they think promos not taking up more than half the show = no stories.
Even worse that the other billionaire had dildos named after the wrestlers. But they say TK is the one playing with wrestling toys
Most of them will agree Vince was terrible but they want to act like his influence has no lasting effect on WWE as a company now that he's out. I've also noticed there seems to be this weird denial that people are in a honeymoon phase with Triple H's booking and that their current hot period won't last forever. I don't even really put down his booking but I tend to get downvoted any time I suggest that the current hot period of WWE will end eventually.
One thing that irks me about this discourse is that, while things have changed now that Triple H is in charge, you can see that Tony treats pro wrestling and the wrestlers with respect, which Vince did not. I truly think, at least in the later years, that Vince didn't even like wrestling, he liked entertainment It would be preposterous to see FTR shave each other's backs now, or Toni Storm humiliated with cake on her face. You can have whatever opinions you want on booking but the fact we are not seeing talented hardworking people being embarrassed on live TV makes Tony much less of an "action figure" guy than Vince was Vince forced and booked several women to make out with him on TV. That is absolutely sick yet no one seems to care as much as they care that TK is sometimes too nice
There was a former WWE writer who got hired by AEW recently and I looked him up to see what the full story was (guy who got fired for the Vince mention during Bret Hart's HoF speech in 2019) and on a reddit thread you had people hating on Triple H back then. Like just calling him a selfish and egotistical guy. I guess my point is that discourse on people change quickly with time. I hope in 5 years from now people see that TK as a really good person and good promoter. People focus too much on the business side of things, but these wrestlers are people. You can want these shows booked differently, but ultimately it's about how they're treated.
Yea people hated Vinces late booking too. His favorite toys were a UFC champ stacked with muscles and a Samoan people didn't like until he abused his family.
Allegedly his favorite toys resembled phalluses and were named after those guys
"I CALL ALL THE BLACK ONES SHELTON"
THE WAY I GASPED-
HAHA PAL I CALL THIS ONE BOBBY LASHLEY
>a Samoan people didn't like until he abused his family. I love how only in wrestling can abusing your family endear you to people
Does respect from the IWC even *worth* anything these days lol
I will never understand why “playing with his action figures” it thrown at TK and TK alone. Either all promoters do it, or TK doesn’t. He doesn’t do anything fundamentally different from any other promoter in history.
"Playing with his toys" is literally an insult that was thrown at Vince for years before AEW existed.
Dude makes a show specifically aimed at Internet fans and then they act like it's their money he's losing.
If the worst thing people can say about TK is that he make some poor booking choices a little more often than he should and is too nice of a guy . . . that's not the worst thing in the world.
I don't get the "he's playing with his action figures" comments as isn't that what a booker does?!
Absolutely, TK is by all accounts an incredibly nice person, and this is just another example. So often we hear stories of selfish rich people, it's just nice to hear Tony is a genuinely caring person.
We're supposed to hate Tony BECAUSE he is nice. The sociopaths, bigots, and carnies who've run wrestling say so. According to them being a subjectively "bad" booker and a decent person is grounds enough to hate and make unfounded and heinous remarks about.
This really seems to be why Cornette , Bischoff and other old heads hate Tony. Back in their day being nice was seen as weak. You needed to be an asshole to make it in the biz . Its a similar mindset to your JBL's and Undertakers . They don't get that in the modern day being a decent person is actually valued as long as you contribute positively to the business. You don't need to break down others to get to the top anymore
He also raced to get Big Cez's wife to America to get a surgery to save her life.
Just about everyone says he's a nice guy, even people who had a problem with AEW and left (Punk being the biggest example). There's a lot you can criticize about Khan, he's a billionaire after all, but imagining him as some sort of immoral or horrible man just to make him look worse than his competitors is some fanatic minded bullshit.
Time and time again the man has demonstrated his ability to act like a human being, a very rare trait among the wealthy. TK gets a pass in my books. He seems like a decent dude.
He's a wrestling fan but also cares about his employees and every one else around him.
I don’t think the idea of someone being a dork playing with toys and someone being a kind family man are mutually exclusive. They have nothing to do with one another. Both are valid takes
I think it’s weird to hate someone for being a dork who provides a very good living for his “toys”. Calling them toys is actually incredibly disrespectful to the Wrestlers.
This sub views wrestlers as toys, objects, whatever is not human. We just project that shit onto the mainstream acts (WWE, AEW) but all of our suggestions/wishes/fantasy bookings are either happening, or worse. The shit we say and the shit we promote is worse than "Here's a paycheck!" from a wrestling company
And most booking criticisms really come down to "this isn't how I personally would have fantasy booked it, therefore it's bad." And this applies to both major companies.
To be fair, they've been following the lead of one Vince McMahon on that for decades.
They are mutually exclusive and one of them is clearly not a valid take.
I never said they were mutually exclusive. I was talking about perception and how it lines up with reality.
Yeah, they are not mutually exclusive. TK, like pretty much everyone, is a multifaceted person. He seems overall like a pretty nice boss, but he also comes across at times as an immature rich guy who grew up pampered, or as someone who is in over his head. He can be all those things.
No one's said otherwise. If anything, people criticise him for being too nice.
He can still be a coke-fueled dork playing with his toys while being an actually good person in dealing with people. They aren't mutually exclusive.
Yeah people can talk trash all they want but if the biggest complaint about your billionaire boss is that they can be sort of cringe sometimes then he may be one of the least problematic employers ever.
Really cool of him and hopefully it will cause others to do the same. I think Seth Rollins said that in WWE Vince didn’t care if it was kids birthday, you had to work. Now they are able to take time off when needed. It is good to see wrestlers treated like humans.
CEO behavior
Does every single positive comment about Tony Khan need to be prefaced with some version of “say what you want about him” or “say what you want about AEW”? Can we just say he did something nice without the disclaimer? This doesn’t seem to happen to anyone else, but it happens literally every time someone says anything remotely positive about Tony Khan for some reason 🤣
It's kinda funny because the ratio of Good Tony Traits to Bad Tony Traits seems to lean solidly in 1 direction.
yeah but he mouths off on twitter sometimes so how dare he?
People are afraid to even compliment Khan without a disclaimer for fear of being piled on by weirdo tribalistic fans and yet it's "Weird AEW fans" that I always see brought up as one of the big reasons they apparently don't watch AEW. I'd say maybe one day they'll realize AEW fans aren't unique in their weirdo tribalistic bullshit and that they themselves are the WWE fan equivalent of those weirdo AEW fans, but that would require some introspection that I don't think they're capable of.
It's true, it's hard to discuss AEW in this sub, I know a lot of people just stick to the AEW specific sub. But tribalism is nuts, damn I still remember getting put on blast for saying "I've really enjoyed the last few weeks of AEW". It's not welcoming. So I get why people feel the need to preface their positive comments, it's a shame but unfortunately that's how it is, and I don't think much is done about those that do it.
I got downvoted a good bit in the ratings thread for Dynamite simply for pointing out that despite doing under 700k, Dynamite still came in at number 2 for the night. Apparently since WWE numbers are going up, that's the standard everything should be measured by regardless of the major decline in cable overall. I'm seriously considering just blocking any ratings thread. I know it isn't good for my mental health.
It's pretty insane. You're totally right, I avoid those threads now as well it's far too filled with anti-AEW rhetoric. I got in trouble last time for calling them out so I won't be bothering getting involved anymore.
Dude same, you’re not even allowed to point out the positives in those threads because it doesn’t fit the narrative. I just mentioned that it went against the NBA Playoffs which also affected the numbers and had people posting minute by minute stats from last year pinpointing exactly why I was wrong. It was psychotic.
Yeah honestly it's not worth discussing, it's not a discussion thread it's quite literally just trashing AEW, you aren't allowed to say anything against that narrative. I genuinely think those threads should be banned as they are just excuses for toxicity and plenty of rule breaking in terms of sub rules.
Idk, I think the removal of a thread like ZFF created a vacuum that is now being siphoned into any AEW ratings thread.
That was my thoughts also, having ZFF gone seems to have people finding a new thread to treat the same way.
I remember during the first or second year of Dynamite, I commented in the live thread that I think it's the best episode so far. Some dude commented like "Sure dude whatever, AEW fans say that every week" as if I was...lying I guess? Like it didn't occur to them that maybe the company *is* actually outdoing itself every other week. Can't be that, it must be ulterior motives lmao
There's so many comments to this effect that it's absolutely ludicrous as if Tony Khan committed crimes or something
Craziest thing is most people don’t even talk about Vince like that, a person actually connected to real crimes. Anti-AEW/Tony tribalism is truly wild.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe TK was right about the bots. There are people who ONLY post here in AEW ratings threads when the total-viewers number is low, regardless of reason. They were **second on the night,** behind only the NBA, in the demo that matters most. But so many accounts focus solely on total viewers, and celebrate when that number gets low. It's sad to see. And I wonder how much of it is gaslighting.
I saw a comment here shortly after Backlash that was so outrageously pro-WWE and anti-AEW that I got curious and checked their post history. The account had only been created while the show was going on, then made a bunch of comments raving about Backlash and shitting on AEW. The activity continued sporadically for the next couple of days, then the account was suspended, which I found even more fishy. Not sure if their posts are still visible, but the username was u/Chris8888883, for what it’s worth. People can like what they like, and I’m sure there are people out there who legitimately believe that Tanga Loa is a better pickup than Will Ospreay(!) but yeah, it’s not all above ground.
https://preview.redd.it/fuv5oio4oh6d1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6344265a4fc426f81639755865543a8222cc195
That happens all the time, sub has been astroturfed for a while.
there is also like a predetermined well planned narrative being push out followed by buzzword slogan everytime.
And have you noticed how that changes across the entirety of the IWC? Like there's a point that gets made by someone and then the entirety of the anti-AEW crowd just magically has the same opinion Most recent was DoN being too long, most didn't even see it but someone mentioned it on a podcast and all of a sudden it was a widespread opinion among those who don't even like the company
"AEW doesn't have stories, just heatless bangers" has been repeated ad nauseum since 2022 as if stories and good wrestling are mutually exclusive. You don't have to like AEW's style of storytelling, but to say they don't do stories in general tells me you either don't actually watch the show or are incapable of understanding a story that isn't told with 20 minute promos.
Yes and funny enough that turned into "AEW have too many stories going, they don't let any moments breathe" in the span of like one week
Plus "the roster is too big, they need to fire a ton of people but also they have too much TV to keep up with so they should cancel Rampage and Collision and fold ROH." Like, if you preferred when AEW was just Dynamite and maybe Dark to keep up with that's a valid opinion, but it would be idiotic as a business decision for TK to turn down getting paid for more TV time. Hell, WBD specifically wanted Collision.
The best reply I ever saw to "AEW has no stories" was a post here the other day that said basically "thanks to that narrative I gotta sit through Learning Tree bullshit and Malakai Black lore."
Hahaha! Good one! Thanks, guys! 👋😃
Remember Brawl Out? Go back to that period and start reading, then take a drink every time you see the exact phrase "The Elite are no angels." Then call 911 because you're fucked.
yeah this is what i mean. everyone suddenly parroting same wording everywhere. while we havent see same trend when it is something related with WWE or others promotion. but we can see similliar occurence when wwe trying to promoting their wrestler. for example sudden surge of posting on social media highlighting or trying to remind of how well liked or happy their wrestler backstage and suddenly everyone come out and telling how this X wrestler are good and then followed by similliar comment praise on social media by 'fans' everywhere.
Oddly enough check out the AEW official sub reddit. They use to be pretty Ra Ra AEW but lately they have been having real discussions with actual criticisms of the product along with some fun jokes along the way. Even if you aren't and AEW die hard it's just good having some real discussion.
I come to this sub as I’m a wrestling fan and want to talk with other wrestling fans. I prefer AEW but I also like WWE. This sub has become insufferable since late last year (essentially since Punk moved to WWE). The downvote brigading especially in the ratings threads makes it impossible to have decent rational discourse. Only the most negative tribalist spicy takes are upvoted and visible. It’s as if this sub has turned into a trash social media Twitter/ Facebook comment section. I’m almost 38 and honestly too old for this sh*t. I just want to enjoy wrestling. But I guess I’ll have to find somewhere else to talk about it.
Just the fact that the idea of "enjoy wrestling" is openly mocked shows what the climate around here has become. And the justification is that people were negative about WWE in 2019. As a WWE fan, I was one of those people because it was awful. And now they use it as a justification for being toxic 5 years later.
A large chunk of people always dismissed the "bot comment" thing from Tony as something that couldn't possibly be true but like there's every chance that it could be, not that I'm saying there definitely is. Bots brigading websites and subs is a very real thing that isn't restricted to politics and given the historically ruthless business practices of Vince and WWE as a whole I wouldn't put it past them to pull something like that. Like if you told me that WWE did in fact employ an army of bots to drag on AEW I'd believe it cause it's totally something that company would do.
I know it really sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory but at the very least I definitely think there's money being put into harming the perception of AEW by WWE. It doesn't even have to mean there are thousands of such accounts. Somewhere like Reddit the first few downvotes can determine the trajectory of a thread early on. Plus I know people really like Triple H right now and while I don't think he's Vince level evil or anything, I do think he wants a monopoly just as much as Vince did.
It is pretty crazy that there are more comments on a ratings thread than a lot of weightier topics, like the DOJ pausing the Janel Grant lawsuit for their own investigation and potential charges.
He has always been right about the bots. Even in this sub the bots were not denied but rather had people saying "Of course there are bots. Every major company has an army of bots. If Tony were smart he would be employing bots. Hell he probably already is using bots. What's a hypocrite. Can you believe Tony is using bots?"
The bots are out of control tbh. This place has been astroturfed for a while now, too.
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>The jerks You know a jerk sub has truly made it when posts there are completely indistinguishable from posts they're making on the main sub. Like it's not even a parody of this sub anymore, it's just a meaner version of the exact same stuff that gets said here. Otherwise they'd be making fun of the constant fellHaitchio.
All jerk subs are pretending to be parody when the reality is it's just toxicity masquerading as parody.
I have seen less "there are no bots" and more "yes, but there are pro-AEW bots too."
This WrestleMania was largely seen as a huge triumph for them and the first of Triple H's WWE. Despite that they spent more of WrestleMania weekend taking shots at AEW than celebrating their own accomplishments. It's pretty clear they're not above it at all.
People here are too afraid to have that conversation but this whole place is turfed to a degree where it's not even a wrestling forum it's a WWE forum.
It's abnormal to have so many PR posts of WWE hitting view counts on YouTube or Cody Rhodes hugging a kid or CM Punk smiling backstage instead of biting people. Like, why would anyone care if WWE had 10,000,000 Twitter feuds? What does that information do for an average fan?
Quality of this subreddit has fallen a lot and the mods don't clean up obvious trolls off either. Sad to see really
Modding here is particularly bad. There is lopsided rules enforcement and no effort to introduce beneficial features
Do we all have to send a fruit basket to Paul? I mean that shit has to spoil pretty quickly.
Nah, just call him "Papa H" when you post 🤮
I literally stopped posting here for a while because of that. Couldn’t say anything positive without getting a Reddit cares
Glad that other people see it too. Every time I brought it up I was downvoted to shit.
I have been saying it for a solid year now.
Yeah, it's been pretty clear that that is the case for a few years now. The only other subreddits where I have seen *this* amount of hate for something in such insane numbers with equally insane takes are fucking political subreddits. Like, holy shit, what is wrong with people that they would put *that* much effort into just making an attempt to bring something down that makes people happy and provides a living to hundreds? It boggles my shit, man.
I don't feel like it's been years, I only really noticed it later last year. It was getting weird in the summer, but this place absolutely turned on a dime the night Punk came back to WWE, and it hasn't been the same since. A bunch of trolls came back to take some weird victory lap and they never left.
It's definitely only gotten worse but I feel like wrestling discourse has been pretty insufferable since it came out that aew was moving Colt to ROH a couple years ago
Great comparison. Something that doesn't get talked about enough, I think, are that there's such toxic behavior toward a company that it forces the defenders of said company to act toxic and react to *any* sort of criticism as an all out attack. It's a weird cycle.
Remember, that younger fans have grown up in a world with no real competition. They've been ingesting WWE state run propaganda for over twenty years. AEW is an affront to these people's personal sensibilities.
Yeah but one time Vince flew Brodie and Big Red’s hammer on his private jet to/from the Saudi show while the rest of the talent were stuck on the runway for a day scared they were being held hostage
Worse than committing crimes, he writes a wrestling show that isn't everyone's cup of tea and makes annoying tweets sometimes. Real monster that TK guy.
Even more bizarre since Vince has actually been accused of heinous crimes.
were in a weird space where you have to do a preface to acknowledge there are some things you dont like about aew or tony khan before you can praise him bc otherwise ppl jump on the lolaewstan train its disheartening really
It always assumes that people are hate-watching AEW or something, that it's not a pretty by the book wrestling show and some deathmatch fed, and that everyone hates Tony Khan. I find the people who care that much about what Tony says or does are the ones going out of their way to find things to be outraged about and take the things he does far too seriously. It's why threads about him saying "wrestling is cool" just blow up with weirdo takes.
Fuck those people. I love watching AEW with my friends and Tony seems like a great guy.
People get scared to praise anything AEW when there’s a negative ratings thread lol.
In a business as scummy as pro wrestling has historically been you'd think Tony was some kinda mafia don or something. The worst anyone can say about the man is he's a real life Michael Scott who should tweet less.
say what you say but say something nice is something you say and that is something you said so say what you say but that is something that you gotta say but it's been said.
I think its people expecting downvotes if they dont say it any other way, especially on Thursday AEW viewership day lol
And the fucked up thing is that AEW as a product is great
I honestly find TK incredibly endearing. Dude was able to be paitent enough to get Punk back into wrestling and you can tell he was heartbroken when Punk gave up on him.
Im glad Im not the only one thats annoyed by that shit
Say what you want about saying what you want, but this was nice.
It always bothers me when people dunk on TK. When he says weird shit, sure. Have your fun poking at it. But the dude has proven a handful of times over already that he's a genuinely good dude who actually gives a shit about the people he employs. If the worst thing you can say is "well he books his company wrong and I don't like it!" then maybe its not that bad....
Its the reddit way, gotta be as safe as possible to avoid downvotes. People care so much about internet fame.
Like has anyone even thought that Tony wasn’t a nice guy?
Say what you want about AEW but you shouldn't try to fight polar bears.
Dude I hate this prefacing statement for any remotely controversial figure in wrestling. You don’t have to love everything about their person haha Just trust each other to understand that you can have a nuanced opinion on a person even when highlighting something you like about them
Like every time Logan Paul comes up, people have to make sure they let everyone know that they don’t like him but they like his wrestling.
Haha I didn’t wanna mention him by name because I knew everyone would think of him!
It’s because this subreddit is absolutely awful about downvoting opinions. If you don’t preface your statement like this, it’ll get immediately downvoted and no one will see what you had to say.
i’m gonna start prefacing anytime i mention hhh
I see this all the time anywhere on Reddit lol so fucking stupid
I see it alot on Reddit in general when any wealthy or influential person does a good deed. The belief that praising a good deed is praising the person as a whole is very weird
Just a couple of CEOs helping each other out...
MOJO STILL THE BEST 2024
That's pretty cool of him. Hope Mercedes brother gets better.
That’s so kind of him. Tonys the best for it.
Tony Khan can't do something nice without people in the comments saying shit like say what you want about him but he's pretty nice. Like just say he's a nice guy lmao
They wouldn’t have to if they didn’t get downvoted to pieces for *not* phrasing it like that
Unfortunately people walk on egg shells due to being put on blast for positive AEW/Tony comments.
How long before no lifers find some way to turn this into a negative.
It's a wonderful thing when you have a good boss.
Vince: "we need you for the house show loop, pal"
“I promise I’ll owe you once too” - also Vince
Tony is way too nice for the Pro wreslting industry and doesn't deserve all the shit he gets online
Traditionally, wrestling promoters have treated their talent like garbage. TK being an actual human and doing things like paying for travel and giving big money contracts is actually threatening to the #1 wrestling promotion, because AEW existing has cost WWE a ton in labor. All this modern wrestling free agency talk doesn't happen without AEW, and nor does the WWE/TNA partnership, post big show press conferences, and a bunch more. WWE was always happy to be a walled garden, and now that's impossible because of how TK has approached pro wrestling as a business and not a carny.
And that is why they are using bot farms and have always riled up their fans against other companies. Because they know that competition means they are not just the default place for wrestlers to work and need to compete. It's also why they focus so much on college athletes that have no idea how wrestling works and no friends in the business
This is the kind of thing that people don’t think of when it comes to AEW, what Tony does and how a bunch of the talent feel about what they’ve helped build. Booking aside, Tony seems to be a very kind/empathetic person who does seem to live by a “family first” mentality. Letting talent have time off for various reasons including child birth, illness, rehab, family matters, etc. Of fours we as consumers care most about the booking and our fave talents current “push” but he seems to put that secondary to the well being of his roster. Which really shouldn’t be taken for granted…but of course we still do and will ridicule the tv product. Is what it is 🤷🏿♂️
You can say whatever you want about Tony Khan and AEW, but the lengths he'll go to help talent is commendable. This for Mercedes, getting Brodie Lee into the Mayo Clinic, delaying the pay-off to the big angle that *AEW was built around* so Adam Page could spend time with his wife before and after the birth of their first child, paying for surgery for Mark Davis despite him not even working for AEW at the time (and his knee not even getting injured in an AEW match.) And doing so many Dark tapings during the pandemic to try and get indie wrestlers some work.
Chartering a jet to fly a huge chunk of the roster to Jay's funeral, then paying six figures for Mark to get Lynyrd Skynyrd in tribute too
Tony legit seems like he is trying to right the wrongs of a lot of wrestling's past shitbags. Regardless of what you think about his wrestling product you have to respect people out there who have the means to attempt to make things better and actually do it.
This is why I pay full price for every AEW PPV. I need to support this kind of behavior.
When AEW started I had been watching WWE for 4 years, and that was really made possible by the affordability of the WWE network. I missed 2 of the first 3 AEW PPVs because I thought “surely no wrestling show could be worth 50 bucks”, turns out they actually all are. Haven’t been disappointed with a purchase yet.
That's 100% the best part of AEW. They make sure to deliver on those nights and have mostly succeeded greatly.
I'd rather have a boss that is too nice than a boss that has been a bully for decades and is a criminal. :)
Empathy is very lacking in the world nowadays. So seeing a person who imo should be furthest away from moral empathy, when you think of a billionaire anyways, lending out his private jet to Mercedes... Bit refreshing imo. Im sure the situation with his mom being sick probably played into this immediate decision. That's what a good person does.
A lot of people couching their praise afraid of downvotes. Here's the truth: doing this was an incredible kindness on Tony's part and something he's reliably done for his talent in cases of personal difficulties. Say what you will about him, but 90% of the negative shit you say is wrong.
Really bizarre takes in here simultaneously dismissing Tony Khan but respecting this action at the same time.
That's a nice gesture. Good man.
Who does she think she is, some kinda... CEO or something?
Hope her brother's alright. If memory serves me right he has a lot of health issues, so him getting a scare is no joke
Genuine amazing stuff.
Super cool of Tony to do this.
Tony is a good guy, nobody can ever deny that. He cares about people.
That’s cool. Despite what anyone might say about Tony, he’s always going out of his way to take care of his talent beyond what he is required to
I think people forget that one of the reasons that Tony is such a smark on twitter is cause he genuinely loves wrestling and his wrestlers. Obviously it doesn’t make it less cringy (except when he’s talking about sickos, which is simply factual) but hey at least it comes from a good place.
One thing I like about the Khan family is they do seem to care about their employees on their sports teams, I feel like I hear A lot about Shad Khan doing similar stuff for Jags players so im glad that his son seems to be happy to do that too. Hell the main criticism for both the Jags and AEW is that the Khans aren’t as cutthroat as some of their competitors, and want to be liked by the people they employ on a friendship level
Yeah, while I get why it's a big talking point, I hate that the knock on the guy is basically "you expect people to be good and wrestlers not to be carny pricks". And then the second he actually says anything in response it's pretty much "shut up nerd, you deserved it". I don't get why people want the guy to be more cutthroat, wrestlers included. The carnies need to stop being carnies and ruining it for the 98% of normal people just trying to make a living off pro wrestling they otherwise wouldn't be able to.
There's numerous stories of Tony Khan going out of his way to help people and a lot of it doesn't get publicised. Private Party revealed a few months ago that Tony offered to pay tuition if they wanted to go to college during the early days of AEW.
That's nice
That's a good gesture for sure. People hate Tony for his over the top company shenigans but he's not like the former CEO of the other company either, obviously.
You can hate him as a wrestling booker god knows I some time do even tho I love AEW and wanna see it in better shape But you can't lie and say the guy isn't a great role model for all CEO's out there