AEW's Tony Khan Offers Thoughts On The Role Of Wrestling Media

For as long as there have been people covering it, pro wrestling has had a complicated relationship with the wrestling media. Sometimes the conflict between the two sides has gotten so big that stories of wrestlers/wrestling personalities getting mad at reporters have become even bigger stories than what goes on in the ring, including CM Punk lashing out at Dave Meltzer, or Zelina Vega criticizing journalists for revealing her release from WWE before she could.

Rarely, however, do those in positions of power give their thoughts on the wrestling media at large, which made it interesting when AEW owner Tony Khan had a lengthy discussion about it while appearing on "Marking Out with MVP and Dwayne Swayze." Khan, who himself used to send in results from shows to newsletters, revealed himself to be overall positive on wrestling media. While he acknowledged there were some negatives, Khan noted that newsletters allowed him to discover other wrestling promotions as a fan, and that they had likely done the same for others.

"I absolutely think that there are benefits," Khan said. "You can read about wrestlers and you go out and you want to watch them. And they can be very influential on you. And there definitely are positives and negatives, but I definitely think the positives would far outweigh the negatives when it comes to wrestling newsletters and wrestling media."

One point Khan did agree with MVP on was how easy some wrestling reporting could be distorted by certain sources looking to gain favorable coverage, and pointed out rumors of heat between MVP and "Speedball" Mike Bailey as a sign of sources being misleading. With jobs in the NFL and England's Premier League giving him the opportunity to see how their respective media work, Khan compared the wrestling media landscape to that of other sports, and noted the contrasts between them.

"There's different ethics in journalism," Khan said. "And I do think, to your point, the sourcing, the verifying of rumors, there's a much higher standard for reporting things in football than there is in wrestling. The kind of sourcing you need to report what is just a rumor, like these locker room rumors, you don't see real football writers writing these kind of things. In wrestling, the journalistic standard is far lower.

"But there are the benefits from the coverage that you get, just like, in any other sport where you want to have the top writers talking about what they see, giving their opinions. I don't always agree with the football writers, I don't always agree with the wrestling writers, but I respect that people follow something year round. Especially wrestling, which really truly is year round. But if you follow the sport and...just like in football and wrestling, I think there is a similar thing where some writers set a higher standard for their writing and for their ethics."

If you use quotes in this article, please credit "Marking Out with MVP and Dwayne Swayze" and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription