AEW President Tony Khan has revealed that New Japan Pro Wrestling approved his recent promo taking aim at WWE.
Appearing ahead of the latest episode of AEW Dynamite, Tony Khan launched into a cutting promo aimed at WWE and WWE President Nick Khan. During the monologue, Khan taunted WWE and the man he described as the “con-man from Connecticut.”
The AEW President’s comments came after it was reported that WWE President Nick Khan had been in talks with NJPW regarding an exclusive partnership which would prevent the company from working with AEW or IMPACT.
Speaking during the AEW Double or Nothing media scrum Khan explained that he had spoken to NJPW prior to delivering the promo.
Ahead of tonight’s Live #AEWDynamite at 10pm ET/9pm CT, and #AEWDoN on ppv Sunday, AEW Owner/President @TonyKhan, aka the Forbidden Door, addressed rumors of a relationship between @WWE & @njpwglobal, + what this means to @AEW! Watch Dynamite tonight LIVE coming up on @TNTdrama! pic.twitter.com/atFTSrvyqZ
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) May 29, 2021
Addressing the media, Khan opened up about his discussions with New Japan, revealing that they thought that it would be a “great promo.”
“I talked to New Japan and I asked them if they thought it would be a good idea and a good promo. They thought it was great and I thought it would be a great promo. It made sense. It was a big weekend for us and it’s true, we have a lot of stuff going with New Japan. Everyone is welcome to talk to each other and we’ve done some great stuff with New Japan just in the last few weeks and I think we’re going to do a lot of great things going forward with everything we’ve talked about and agreed to. I’m excited about it,”
Khan was later asked if he has also held talks with WWE. AEW’s head honcho said that while he had spoken to WWE it was mostly “backchannel stuff.”
It’s little stuff, mostly backchannel stuff. A good example if when Chris ended up on Broken Skull Sessions. Chris and Steve had talked and Steve talked to the people who run WWE and it was good.”
In something of a landmark move, earlier this year Chris Jericho appeared on the WWE Network, while under contract with WWE. It was the first time that such a deal had been put in place.
H/t to Fightful for the transcription.