Tony Khan calls WWE ‘the Harvey Weinstein of pro wrestling’ on NFL Network

Tony Khan is getting a ton of free publicity for AEW by selling the effects of The Young Bucks’ attack on him from the April 24 Dynamite at this week’s National Football League Draft in Detroit.

This afternoon (April 26), the attention Khan’s been getting — and the fact that he’s the Chief Football Strategy Officer for his father Shad’s NFL team, the Jacksonville Jaguars — led to an appearance on the Kickoff show for the Draft’s second night.

For the first portion of the interview, it’s mostly just kayfabe fun as Tony talks about the attack and laughs with the hosts about how The Bucks’ recently renamed the move they gave him, “The Tony Khan Driver” so he should have seen it coming. He plays up how “deadly” the move is and calls back to the old Memphis rasslin’ angle about the spike piledriver being banned in Tennessee.

When he’s asked what his father thought of the attack, TK pivots into talking about AEW’s place in the current pro wrestling market. He makes a reference to the American Football League from the 1960s that merged with the NFL and became that league’s American Football Conference while hyping AEW’s success, then goes after the industry leader in a way that leads the hosts to cut him off and wrap things up:

“AEW, we’ve been doing this for five years. We are the most successful sports start-up since the AFL, pre-merger. There has not been a challenger brand that has gained as much market share as AEW in many, many years.

“We are like the Pepsi of pro wrestling. We’re up against a really evil juggernaut. WWE is our competitor, that’s who we’re facing. AEW, like the Pepsi of pro wrestling. WWE is like the Harvey Weinstein of pro wrestling… I’m really proud of what we do down here…”

That is, of course, a not so subtle way to remind the NFL Network’s audience of WWE’s former Chairman Vince McMahon. McMahon resigned in the wake of sexual abuse allegation made in a lawsuit filed by Janel Grant earlier this year. That suit also names WWE as a defendant, accusing the organization as a whole of being complicit in McMahon’s misdeeds.

Doesn’t like a topic NFL Network wanted to dive into on a Friday afternoon. Was it a smart move by Khan? WWE’s been pretty successful in distancing themselves from McMahon while he fights Grant’s accusations and case, without making the sweeping changes that were rumored when the story broke back in January. Competitively speaking, it may been worth trying to reassociate WWE and its former leader in the public’s minds.

It’ll certainly lead to a lot of debate about who’s responsible for fanning the flames of pro wrestling tribalism, and whether that’s as good for AEW’s business as Tony Khan thinks it is. It will also almost certainly lead to some bringing up Khan’s handling of questions about sexual harassment at his own company, and names who’ve been accused of misconduct that are on his payroll.

Weigh in with your thoughts below.