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Tony Khan Reacts To WWE's Interest In Collaborating With Other Wrestling Promotions; 'An Interesting Thought'
Know what AEW President Tony Khan said when told that WWE has shown interest in collaborating with other wrestling promotions.
The idea that WWE is the sole wrestling promotion in the United States has diminished over the past few years. The emergence of other wrestling companies has brought significant changes to the industry. While WWE, led by Vince McMahon, never pursued any partnerships with other wrestling promotions, the current Chief Content Officer, Paul 'Triple H' Levesque, is now actively engaging in such collaborations.
The significant shift began in 2020, leading to WWE wrestlers engaging in other wrestling promotions. For instance, Karl Anderson defended his NEVER Openweight Championship in NJPW while under contract with WWE. Likewise, Shinsuke Nakamura made an appearance in a Pro Wrestling NOAH ring during The Great Muta's retirement tour.
Likely, TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace entered the Women’s Royal Rumble in 2024. On the other hand, WWE’s Shayna Baszler was also permitted to compete at GCW Bloodsport during WWE WrestleMania 40 weekend.
However, one crossover which has not taken place so far is of the WWE and AEW. The two wrestling promotions have been at loggerheads for sometime and now AEW President Tony Khan has addressed collaboration chances in the future.
Tony Khan Speaks On Collaborating With WWE
When asked by Liam Crowley about collaborating with WWE, Tony Khan said that it would depend on circumstances. "If WWE came calling to you to do, not even necessarily a collaborative show, but just share talent, share promotion, would you consider AEW to be open for business with WWE?"
To this Khan said, "It's an interesting thought. It would depend on the circumstance."
Founded in 2019, AEW launched by Tony Khan emerged as the challenging brand to WWE within no time. Several WWE wrestlers who developed cold feet with the company, or had several differences walked away and joined AEW. Chris Jericho was the first one to do so. This was followed by Cesaro, Dean Ambrose, The Hardy Boyz and Edge.
WWE Didn’t Collaborate With AEW For Dean Ambrose
WWE and AEW have done business before but things came to a standstill when WWE refused to acknowledge an active AEW wrestler Billy Gun into the D-Generation X televised on WWE Hall of Fame in April 2019.
This led to a bitter relationship between the two companies, and AEW pulled Billy Gun from participating in the Hall of Fame ceremony.
As a result, WWE did not even consider talking to AEW for a Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley) appearance at WWE WrestleMania 40. There was a segment in the main event where The Shield was to make a special appearance to save Cody Rhodes, but only Seth Rollins made his appearance and Ambrose was not seen.
Several fans on social media later said that they were expecting the return of Dean Ambrose as The Shield’s music started.
However, it was Tony Khan eventually who had given a green-light to WWE’s recent crossover with TNA which then saw Triple H and the then TNA President Scott D’Amore work out Jordynne Grace’s appearance at WWE Royal Rumble.
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