Kevin Sullivan Explains Why AEW CEO Tony Khan Shouldn't 'Poke The Sleeping Dog'

Former WCW head booker Kevin Sullivan knows the feeling of competing against WWE programming on a weekly basis, and can therefore relate to AEW President Tony Khan's ambitious plans to throw down the gauntlet to the sports entertainment juggernaut. Over the past week or so, Khan has upped the ante in his war against the Stamford-based promotion, going as far as to say that "business became personal" when WWE poached his talents at a time when his mother was fighting for her life at a hospital. Khan's remarks came after he had already taken shots at Vince McMahon, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H through a series of social media posts. 

On the latest "Tuesday with The Taskmaster," Sullivan cautioned Khan against going too far in his comments about WWE, suggesting that such a move could backfire against AEW. "I think he wants to beat them [WWE] so bad, which is not a bad thing, but you can't say [anything]... you know it's like a leper ... 'I have leprosy and everything is falling off me but I point to you and say, look at Paul's nose, he's got a little spot there. He must have leprosy.' It's the classic leper complex. You put it out to take the vision off of you." 

Sullivan agreed with his co-host's take that Khan is currently playing the deflection game by pointing the blame at WWE while ignoring his own company's issues — which include dwindling TV ratings and attendance figures. "Why point out that they [John Cena, Undertaker] didn't do a million .... we've all heard the statement, 'Don't poke a sleeping dog.'"

WWE and AEW will once again compete for eyeballs on November 17 when "WWE SmackDown" and "AEW Collision" go head-to-head for the first time ever.