In a fastidiously crafted try to realize mainstream media consideration for his wrestling firm, AEW proprietor Tony Khan appeared in the course of the NFL Draft sporting a neckbrace, promoting the truth that Khan had been a part of a wrestling angle on AEW Dynamite the night time earlier than the place he had been given a piledriver by the Younger Bucks, in what was the important thing level of an enormous angle the place The Elite wage warfare in opposition to the established order in AEW.
Khan, whose household owns the Jacksonville Jaguars, was proven a number of instances in the course of the night time within the Jaguars warfare room in the course of the NFL Draft Thursday night time, sporting a neck brace, a transfer that garnered optimistic consideration from each commentators throughout draft broadcasts, and on social media. On Friday, Khan appeared in a speaking section on the NFL Community, the place he talked a bit bit about his wrestling promotion, and when evaluating AEW to WWE, mentioned the next:
“We’re essentially the most profitable sports activities start-up because the AFL. There has not been a challenger model that has gained as a lot market-share as AEW in lots of, a few years. We’re just like the Pepsi of pro-wrestling, and we’re up in opposition to a very evil juggernaut. WWE is our competitor, that’s who we face. AEW, just like the Pepsi of professional wrestling, WWE is just like the Harvey Weinstein of pro-wrestling.”
Tony Khan calls WWE “just like the Harvey Weinstein of professional wrestling”. pic.twitter.com/5pL4u9d2al
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) April 26, 2024
Labeling WWE as a “actually evil juggernaut” and “the Harvey Weinstein of pro-wrestling” are simply essentially the most direct photographs Khan has taken at WWE since he began AEW. Whereas Khan as soon as was very impartial, no less than publicly, about WWE, suggesting previously that he was not in opposition to working with them and constantly saying that AEW was “not at warfare with anyone”, Khan has clearly shifted his public stance in the direction of being closely in opposition to WWE.
The explanation for the shift is probably going as a result of attempting to be politically ambivalent in the direction of WWE publicly hasn’t helped Khan within the slightest. WWE has run an lively publicity marketing campaign in opposition to AEW, courting again to Vince McMahon labeling the corporate as “blood and guts” in 2019 and has been attempting to muscle AEW out of the market because the firm’s inception.
Attempting to disregard WWE’s fixed swipes and makes an attempt to wreck AEW’s repute has solely led to AEW trying comparatively hapless whereas WWE enjoys the bounty of taking the low-road. WWE can try to coerce advertisers into being upset with the usage of a pizza-cutter throughout a match on AEW Dynamite, try to tamper with AEW contracted wrestlers and have former Nick Khan shopper Ariel Helwani, who has morphed into WWE’s private hatchet-man within the media, accuse Tony Khan of being a cocaine addict. None of it has actually led to dangerous publicity for WWE, many of the consideration has been heaped onto Tony Khan and AEW.
Regardless of his greatest efforts, Khan has not been handled pretty by the media. WWE and the loyalty the corporate has, particularly within the wrestling media, has been in a position to paint the image that Khan is a clown that’s out of his depth working a wrestling promotion that dares to problem WWE. YouTube is plagued by thumbnails of a confused-looking Tony Khan, as aggregators attempt to promote the leisure of a supposedly ignorant wrestling promoter attempting to tackle mighty WWE. Web sites are thrilled to run headlines that share the opinions of hacks like Eric Bischoff, who discover fixed criticism of Khan’s management of the corporate.
Khan’s makes an attempt to play good with WWE have been an entire failure, and uncovered a wrestling media sphere that was by no means prepared to offer his firm a good likelihood anyway. It doesn’t matter what Khan did, it was going to be offered by many individuals, whether or not individuals beneath the affect of WWE’s public relations operation or just WWE-loyal followers, as a failure of his management.
So Khan has determined to come back out swinging. He in contrast WWE, an organization that’s presently being sued for intercourse trafficking and has been mired in scandal during the last 18 months, to disgraced film studio govt Harvey Weinstein. It was a calculated transfer by Khan, who took the publicity of the neck-brace angle in the course of the NFL Draft as a possibility to punch WWE sq. within the face.
For the previous a number of weeks, Khan, like everybody, watched as WWE did a full-fledged publicity press round WrestleMania XL, with little or no acknowledgement from the media that the corporate was presently engaged in a serious lawsuit concerning intercourse trafficking, and that Vince McMahon has seemingly been deleted from WWE historical past. Stephanie McMahon, who had disappeared from the corporate beforehand and has been named one of many company officers within the lawsuit from Janel Grant, even made a shock look at WrestleMania.
Paul Levesque gleefully appeared in entrance of the media for post-WrestleMania press conferences after each nights of the occasion, and hardly confronted any questions that have been associated to the continuing scandal that must be threatening to submarine all the firm. In the meantime, Khan continues to face an uphill battle in getting a good media illustration of each himself and his firm.
Since Khan would by no means be given a good likelihood anyway, he determined to throw some punches. And so they landed–whereas Khan will certainly be raked over the coals by all the same old suspects who will decry about how unprofessional his habits was (whereas additionally largely ignoring the precise intercourse scandal that has enveloped WWE), Khan did no less than shift a few of the dialog again to the continuing investigation that’s presently happening in WWE.
Khan is unlikely to ever really win a public relations warfare in opposition to WWE, that battle has been misplaced a very long time in the past because of quite a few benefits WWE holds as an establishment of leisure. Nevertheless, Khan and AEW attempting to appease WWE hardcore followers and attraction to everybody has not been a productive methodology for AEW by way of producing good publicity. It was time the gloves got here off, and no less than this manner Khan can get some worth if he’s going to be handled unfairly by the media anyway.
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