Jim Cornette has given his take on Tony Khan being assaulted by The Elite on AEW Dynamite.
On the April 24th edition of Dynamite, Tony Khan met the returning Jack Perry face-to-face in the ring. After the two appeared to make amends, with Khan reinstating Perry in AEW, the former Jungle Boy turned on the AEW President, dropping him with a gut punch.
Things didn’t end there, though, as The Young Bucks and Kazuchika Okada made their way to the ring. After feigning concern for Khan, The Bucks hoisted him up and delivered a Tony Khan Driver to their boss.
In the aftermath, Tony Khan has been sporting a neck brace while taking part in the NFL Draft in his role as Chief Strategy Officer of the Jacksonville Jaguars
Jim Cornette Gives His Take On Tony Khan Assault
On the latest episode of his Drive-Thru podcast, legendary manager Jim Cornette has given his thoughts on the angle that played out on Dynamite. Cornette first claimed that it’s a “rule of thumb” that wrestling promoters with a love of wrestling like Tony Khan will find a way to get themselves involved on TV when things look bad.
“This is not an urban legend it’s a rule of thumb in the wrestling business down through history in companies small and large. If you found a backer, an investor, a money mark, whatever term that you want to use [for someone] not motivated by business but more for the love of the game and being involved in it or some of the people that might be involved in it. When they start losing patience or things look bad, come up with an angle to put them on TV. Has this not happened umpteen times over the years?”
When discussing the similarities to Eric Bischoff’s onscreen involvement with the nWo, Cornette credited Bischoff with being great in an on-air role and pointed out that Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall were all big names at the time.
“That’s what I am saying. We don’t have Kevin Nash, we don’t have Scott Hall, we don’t have Eric Bischoff, we don’t have Hulk Hogan. We got Tony Khan, The Buckaroos, Ocody [Okada] and Jungle Jack-off. Remember what I said at the top, that this was the worst time to present an amateur production whether it be amateur booking, amateur talent or amateur [TV] production. Can you imagine Tony Schiavone is standing there in the ring, introduces the man of the hour Jungle Jack, and all 800 fans singing ‘Cry me a river.’ But he calls out Tony Khan and Tony wanders out. Can you imagine, again I know this is pie-in-the-sky dreaming, but if they had the average fan, somebody that might want to bump these numbers up. They are used to seeing Vince McMahon or Eric Bischoff or Triple H, here comes the guy that runs the thing. And then here comes Rick Moranis’ stunt double, and they are saying ‘This the guy that runs the thing?!’
After running through the segment, Cornette explained that “it was gonna happen eventually” because he believes Khan dreamed of being involved in big angle. However, he thinks the execution didn’t work because of who was involved.
It was gonna happen eventually because this is Tony’s dream. [Tony probably thought] ‘I get to take a bump in the ring and fans will be worried about me. Wow! That will be cool. And will all be a part of this big angle.’ This isn’t Bill Watts coming out of retirement for The Last Stampede. Theoretically, this should have been something and it would have been if they had used talent properly who were putting their hands on the owner of the company.“But instead, it’s with these children that nobody cares about to begin with. It was executed in such a rotten way because Tony can’t do anything physical, and nobody gives a s**t! The reason why this was such a hot topic is because it looks so desperate now. Everyone was making fun of it and like what the f**k is going on here? I don’t know if that’s good publicity for theoretically pulling the trigger on the biggest angle that you could f**king do, laying out the boss.
Finishing up, Cornette theorised that Khan’s involvement was to give him more faith in the storyline and ultimately “another thrill.”
“That’s the problem, I think now they have figured ok, Tony will have more faith in this if he is a part of it or if he is in it. We know he wants to take a bump. Nobody can possibly have thought that this was going to be good with the people involved and the way it was executed. It’s just purposely to give Tony another thrill and to give these guys more indemnity to continue not to produce any kind of numbers.”
When it comes to the possibility of Tony Khan becoming an active wrestler like Bischoff and Vince McMahon did in past eras, Cornette doesn’t think it’s likely in the near future, but could happen further down the line.
“I don’t think that’s gonna happen until the next rights deal goes down. Then if it doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to go we might see Tony as an active wrestler.”
If you use any of the above quotes, please credit the original source and give an H/T to Inside The Ropes for the transcription.