Tony Khan didn’t mince words when it came to his feelings on the presentation of sports entertainment as compared to professional wrestling.
The latest episode of AEW Dynamite featured the third installment of Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Jericho under the All Elite banner. While Danielson gave his best effort in trying to capture the ROH Championship from the man who’s looking to take out everything associated with the brand, he was thwarted when Daniel Garcia solidified his allegiance with the Jericho Appreciation Society and hit Danielson with the ROH Title as the referee was out of commission, allowing Jericho to retain.
Earlier in the day, AEW President Tony Khan spoke on Busted Open Radio to promote the match, and he had no hesitation when making his feelings known about the differences between sports entertainment and the professional wrestling he chooses to promote.
“Yeah, well it’s going to be a tremendous match tonight, and to your point, Bryan Danielson represents everything about pro wrestling that is pure and great, everything about Ring of Honor that has made it such a great promotion for pro wrestling, and Chris Jericho slaps all of it in the face. He represents sports entertainment, which is synonymous with cheating.”
Continuing, Tony Khan, who purchased Ring of Honor earlier this year, noted that he now owns footage of many current WWE Superstars as well as performers under the AEW banner today.
“And now we’ve seen Chris Jericho on AEW Dynamite disrespect the entire legacy, 20 years of Ring of Honor, a lot of great wrestlers, people who are in AEW today like Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, and other great stars like Adam Cole.
“And names that are not in AEW, great names who competed in Ring of Honor and are part of the video library in the great history and traditions of the company, like now known as Seth Rollins and of course Sami Zayn, was formerly El Generico. Of course, AJ Styles [is] part of that library, Kevin Owens, known as Kevin Steen. So a lot of great stars today in the world of wrestling that are not in AEW or Ring of Honor but are part of the legacy.”
If you use any quotes from this transcription, please credit Busted Open Radio and link back to this article with a h/t to Inside the Ropes.