There has long been a rumour among some internet wrestling fans that Tony Khan allows some talent ‘creative control’ in AEW.
Of course, this was a disastrous idea in WCW and was certainly one of the major contributing factors to its eventual demise.
Speaking on the Battleground podcast, Khan cleared up the creative control rumour.
“There’s no creative control. Only I have it. No wrestler has that.
“And there’s a lot of freedom to work with the staff and the coaches and the wrestlers together and come up with ideas.
“And I am one of the most collaborative people on the planet. And that’s how I’ve been able to succeed in multiple sports and build the greatest sports analytics engineering firm in the world, True Media, where we service 29 out of the 30 major league baseball teams.”
“I love working with partners all over the world, media partners, and in wrestling. I think we are really collaborative and when AEW at its best, that’s what it is, the wrestlers coming in with ideas, I come in with ideas, we work together and that’s what I love.”
To be fair, Khan has said as much for the longest time. He welcomes ideas from the talent that he is working with and sure, the senior superstars there probably have more sway than most over their direction.
But, ultimately it is Khan who says yes or no. The buck stops with him.
Wrestlers like Adam Copeland, Mercedes Mone and Jon Moxley have been accused of having creative power from time to time, but it’s always turned out to be unfounded.
Khan’s passion for the wrestling business has always been clear as day and he surely knows better given the historian that he is.
Listening to some of your most accomplished talents and working alongside other people is not giving them carte blanche – an important distinction.
