A pair of new reports offer fresh insight into the growing frustrations of current and former AEW talent with how Tony Khan books the company’s shows.
It seems like a long time ago when AEW was the hottest thing in professional wrestling. After debuting in 2019, the promotion was on an upward trajectory after they offered wrestling fans the sort of product they had long wanted from WWE.
Related: Hilarious Reason Why AEW Negotiations With Shane McMahon Failed Last Year Have Been Revealed
However, in recent years, as WWE’s product has gotten red hot AEW has gone into a creative direction that has frustrated and turned off many fans. It has led to a steep decline in ticket sales and ratings for the company. Furthermore, many rumors have revealed a lot of unrest in the locker room about how owner Tony Khan books and produces shows.
There is no greater proof of that than the mass exodus of talent leaving the company and jumping to WWE. Over the last few days, new reports have added more details to what Khan does every week that has many wrestlers and staff shaking their heads in frustration.
A recent segment on AEW Dynamite featuring Thunder Rosa and Megan Bayne went viral for how disastrous it was. It seemed like the talent involved had different directives heading into the segment and it created a moment where all involved looked very confused and not like high-level professionals.
Following the ugly showcase, Wrestling Observer reporter Bryan Alvarez took the company to task and revealed why the segment was so poorly executed.
Tony Khan does not have production meetings before episodes of AEW Dynamite and Collision?
“Not one week goes by where I don’t hear from somebody in AEW saying, ‘Why the f*** don’t we have production meetings?'” Alvarez said. “‘We need production meetings. Things happen on every show where if we had a production meeting, they wouldn’t happen.’ But Tony refuses to do production meetings, and here we are. What in the f*** happened here? Nobody knows. I didn’t get a single good explanation for it. It was just everybody was on a different page, and you made the baby face look like an absolute idiot, and away we go.”
However, that was not the only new information on Tony Khan’s questionable style of running AEW. During a new edition of his “Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, WWE legend and former AEW star Matt Hardy revealed a facet of Khan’s booking style that “drives me nuts.”
“That’s one of the issues with AEW. Tony pushes like, ‘Where the best wrestle,’ or best wrestling. It doesn’t make a difference,” he said. “These people are characters. If you want to build this character into something else, it doesn’t make a difference if she doesn’t match up. That’s what drives me nuts, man.
“Once again, this is entertainment property at the end of the day. There are a lot of people who can do great things, wrestling-wise. Be very athletic. But like because she doesn’t match up? If you’re an over character, and people are interested, it’s going to help sell tickets and move merch,” he added. “Someone popular, utilize them and make the most out of it.”
