Tony Khan has a new way of describing WWE’s habit of running major events against AEW.
After previously brushing off the scheduling strategy as the “Jim Crockett compliment,” the AEW President has now gone a step further, calling it “the predatory nature of scheduling”—while insisting he still views it as proof that AEW has become impossible to ignore.
Speaking on the Battleground Podcast, Khan was asked about WWE scheduling WWE x AAA World Collide on the same day as AEW All Out in the Chicago area. Rather than framing it as purely competition or a sign of respect, Khan said the situation is more complicated than that.
“It’s probably all of the above. I think it’s all of the above. It’s the reality of current wrestling. It’s the frankly predatory nature of scheduling of events, but also the compliment that says that AEW is doing very well and Chicago’s a great city for wrestling.”
Even with that criticism, Khan made it clear he isn’t losing sleep over WWE’s plans. Instead, he said head-to-head competition has become part of the modern wrestling business and something AEW has learned to expect. His attention, he added, is firmly on the company’s own schedule, with Dynamite, Redemption, All In, and All Out all fast approaching.
“I’m very excited about AEW All Out and it’s not something unexpected to have competition and I do welcome it. And I also really am excited about the run of shows coming up tonight. Just a stacked Dynamite, a major Redemption pay-per-view this weekend, and I think it’s going to put us on the course to All In and then All Out.”
While Khan isn’t backing away from his long-held belief that WWE’s scheduling reflects AEW’s success, his latest comments make one thing clear: he now sees the strategy as both a compliment and a deliberate attempt to make life harder for the competition.
Do you agree with Tony Khan? Is WWE’s scheduling strategy simply business, or does “predatory” accurately describe it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
