Tony Khan Explains Origins Of Beef With WWE

Upon the launch of All Elite Wrestling in 2019, the company quickly emerged as a formidable rival to WWE. As the two companies continue to make their plays to get a leg up over each other, some moves have ignited a real "war" between the promotions — at least in the eyes of AEW President Tony Khan. Outside of the reports of WWE's alleged contract tampering in an effort to recruit AEW talent, Khan recently spoke about another incident that seemingly sparked the "hatred" between the two empires.

In an interview with "The Dan Le Batard Show," Khan recounted a 2021 story about WWE President Nick Khan having talks with NJPW, shortly after the Japanese promotion began working with AEW. In response to the interaction between WWE and NJPW, Tony Khan asserted his irritation, referring to Nick Khan as "two-faced."

Now, Tony Khan has provided more insight into the situation. "I called the New Japan executives and said, 'Is this true? Did WWE call you and try to get you to turn on me?' And they said, 'Yeah,' and I said, 'Okay, well are we still doing the stuff we have planned?'" he recalled. "Because at the time, we had a match set up for Wednesday night 'Dynamite' where there was gonna be a New Japan title match in AEW. It was the first of many of those such matches."

NJPW officials told Khan that they "didn't trust" WWE, and wanted to continue working with AEW. "Ever since, our relationship [with NJPW] has been incredibly positive," Khan said. And despite WWE's attempts to "hurt AEW's relationships," Khan affirmed that it's motivated AEW to work even harder.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Dan Le Batard Show" with an h/t to Wrestling Inc.