Booker T Comments On New AEW Producer

Tony Khan's hiring of Mike Mansury, the former WWE Vice President of Global Television Production, as AEW's Senior Vice President and Co-Executive Producer, was in the spotlight of Booker T's "The Hall of Fame" podcast, with the two-time WWE Hall of Famer praising Mansury.

"He's a friend of mine," said Booker. "He's always been a great producer for me. He's always been great for the business."

However, while Booker stated what Mansury brings to the table is "awesome," he stopped short of predicting that he would have a game-changing impact on AEW.

"It's not going to be one guy that's going to go over to AEW, that came from WWE, that's going to change the name of the game," he said, citing Arn Anderson and Dean Malenko as examples of those joining AEW who haven't created any seismic shift. He also noted a similar situation happened in the past when many believed WCW's signing of Vince Russo as head writer would enhance the promotion.

"People thought that was going to be a game-changer," Booker said. "I love Vince Russo, he made me, made my career, but he almost killed the business."

Booker, though, does not feel Mansury will repeat Russo's mistakes, noting that the new AEW signee could work well with younger talent.

"He's relatively young himself," he said. "Sometimes when you're working with someone that's young, they can relate to you a little bit better [and] you can relate to them a little bit better. So that may help a whole lot. So, it may be a great spot for him to be in, you know what I mean? We'll find out in the next three to five years."

Mansury spent over a decade with WWE and left in May 2020, before returning to pro wrestling with AEW in December 2022.