Tony Khan finds himself and AEW at the receiving end of a rant.
In a few days, AEW EVP Kenny Omega will make his in-ring return against Gabe Kidd at Wrestle Dynasty on January 5th, 2025. Fighting his battle with diverticulitis, The Cleaner will finally be back in the ring against Kidd, who is infamous for his outspoken nature.
Taking shots at several WWE and AEW stars recently on X (Twitter), Kidd has now changed his focus toward Khan and All Elite Wrestling. As a way to promote his match against Omega, the English wrestler has shared his thoughts on the Jacksonville-based promotion.
In a recent interview with NJPW’s YouTube channel, Kidd turned down plans of working with the promotion. He further took shots at Khan’s possible style of booking him.
I don’t give a s**t if AEW wants to sign me. What, so I can go and turn up to TV, be Tony’s new toy? Go on Dynamite, have a couple of matches and then sit and catering for 23 weeks doing f**k all, flying to Toledo, Ohio, to do what? A show in front of a crowd that have seen five hours of wrestling already? I have no interest in that whatsoever.
Wrestling to me, I’m a professional, but wrestling means more to me than these guys, and I think it’s about time that someone with New Japan stepped up and has some f**king balls. We are getting our pants pulled down and dogged by the rest of the wrestling world because of being professional. So maybe it is time to be a little bit unprofessional.”
Continuing his rant, Kidd further called the promotion’s president an “idiot”
Maybe it is time to talk a bit of s**t, and if they have anything to say about it, can come and chat to me. I have no problem pulling Tony Khan into our office and telling him what’s what. I have no problem reading him his rights and telling him what a f**king idiot he is. So that’s that.”
H/t Fightful
While Kidd represents NJPW and Omega AEW, this could be a kayfabe move to generate more heat before the bout.
It has been reported that an NJPW star’s contract is set to expire soon.
Tony Khan Explains Recent AEW Change
Speaking with Alex Hunt on the AEW Worlds End media call, Tony Khan opened up on the recent change made to the Continental Classic tournament this year. While last year, the winners from each league advanced to the Worlds End PPV in the final, this year’s tournament will have the winner of each league face the runner-up from their opposing league in the semi-finals.
The winners of those matches will face each other later that night in the final to crown the overall winner of the tournament.
There’s several things that this came down to. I’m very proud of the work that everybody has done to make this Continental Classic so tremendous. As we go into the semi-finals we’ve 4 great contenders and 2 semi-final matches with Kyle Fletcher against Will Ospreay and Ricochet vs. Kazuchika Okada. Then we will have a great finals match on AEW Worlds End.
I felt that it would add to the pay-per-view to have the semi-finals and the finals. It’s gruelling competition and it adds another aspect to the tournament, what it takes, the tenacity and the adversity involved for somebody to come out on top in this tournament.
I think it really adds to the format and it’s why I made this change since the inaugural competition to have the Blue League winner wrestle the Gold League runner-up and have the Gold League winner wrestle the Blue League runner-up to create fresh matches that have not happened in the competition. With 33 matches in the tournament, there’s so many great moments and things that have happened throughout this tournament.
I think this format change makes Worlds End even more exciting and adds more intrigue to the tournament. With the timing of Worlds End coming off AEW Full Gear and the scheduling of the tournament, I thought this would be a very interesting change and I think it has been a very positive change to the tournament in 2024.”
In other news: The Rock can miss out on WWE WrestleMania 41 match.