Tony Khan Calls Ariel Helwani 'A Fraud' After WWE SmackDown Appearance

Friday night's "WWE SmackDown" in Montreal, Quebec, Canada served as the "go-home" show for Saturday night's Elimination Chamber event. During the show, combat sports reporter, pundit, and podcaster Ariel Helwani twice appeared holding a microphone with a WWE logo while standing in the crowd.

While he had previously narrated some video features on WWE programming via his work for BT Sport, the company's broadcast partner in the United Kingdom, this was by far Helwani's most overt association yet with the company. Helwani shared a clip of one of his appearances on Twitter, commenting on it only with a trio of "exploding head" emojis. Many of his fans cheered him on, but at least one prominent figure in the wrestling business was far from happy.

"You're a fraud (Ariel Helwani)," wrote AEW President Tony Khan in a tweet of his own. "You're as legitimate of a reporter as (Tony Schiavone)."

Khan was seemingly referring to how, among other things, Helwani has reported on major WWE news as recently as January 11, when, in a tweet, he attempted to debunk reports of WWE agreeing to sell the company to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Previously, in October, Khan appeared on Helwani's podcast, "The MMA Hour." The interview proved contentious, with Khan refusing to address the post-show backstage brawl at All Out in September. Helwani later called the interview "one of the most frustrating of my career." In the aftermath, Helwani was criticized for not directing a similar level of scrutiny toward WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque during an interview he conducted with him in September.