Tony Khan Paid Talent To Appear On ‘Empowerrr,’ Believes The NWA Could’ve Done A Better Job Giving Credit
Tony Khan says he’s making plenty of contributions to the world of women’s wrestling, and feels like some of those could have been better communicated by the National Wrestling Alliance.
Tony Khan took part in a media call on Thursday to promote AEW Full Gear and was asked by Ella Jay about any potential plans for an all-women’s event, similar to how NWA Empowerrr took place in August. After noting that the bar has been raised with women’s wrestling this year, Khan was asked if AEW has any plans to contribute an all-women’s event in the future. Khan then brought up the financial contributions he did make already, pointing out that he paid many of the wrestlers that worked the NWA Empowerrr event, and he felt that that should’ve been given a bit more attention by the NWA in the first place.
“I’m going to cut off your question right there because I don’t think I get enough credit for what I did for the NWA show [Empowerrr], because a good number of the people that wrestled on the NWA show were wrestlers that I sent and paid. So I do think I contributed because the highest-paid wrestlers on that show were actually the people I paid separately from what they already make in AEW to go wrestle on that show,” Khan stressed, “and I don’t think they did a very good job of telling people that, honestly, even though it was in the deal we did. I wish they told more people that because it was one of the points I made when we closed. [I said] it would be nice if you told people that I’m paying the wrestlers coming in because that’s a big contribution from me, if that makes sense.”
“So I did pay the wrestlers for that show, it’s kinda like when you pay for a dinner and nobody thanks you. So that was one thing, but I have been really making a big effort this year to grow and improve our women’s division and I think have made a lot of strides with our women’s division this year as a company. We’ve added big free agents and I’m really excited about what’s happening with the TBS tournament right now. Among the big free agents we’ve added are Thunder Rosa, who came over from the NWA, of course, and Ruby Soho.
Khan then talked about the added storyline depth of the current TBS Women’s Championship tournament, noting that he’s really trying to make big strides in women’s wrestling before pointing out the contributions he made to NWA once again.
“Ruby Soho coming over is interesting because I had a conversation with her a couple days ago, she’s in the TBS Championship Tournament and she’s been in a lot of tournaments and she’s wrestled all over as you know, so I was talking to her about the tournament and she’s not a BS person. Dory, Ruby Soho, is the ultimate straight-shooter, and she loves this tournament. She was saying she’d never been in a tournament like this, she loves all of the story in it. If you look, there’s a story building with her and Kris Statlander, because they didn’t really have a rivalry but they’ve been doing the promos on TV and there’s been a couple of situations where they’ve helped each other out. Kris had Ruby’s back and now they’re even, and Ruby doesn’t owe her anything now. I’m really excited very much for Jade [Cargill] versus Red Velvet, I’m very excited for [Hikaru] Shida versus Nyla Rose, and of course we’ve seen a lot of great build towards Thunder Rosa versus Jamie Hayter.
“So, I have been and am trying to actively make big strides in women’s wrestling and as far as a lot of the stuff that has been happening in the all-women’s shows that have been happening other places, I actually have made great contributions, including financial contributions, which I think they could have done a better job at telling people, honestly.”
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