The Tony Khan Is A Twat Thread

[METAL ON METAL]

It hardly takes much to bait them to be fair, same with the Sasha Banks fans that have been out in force because he said he wasn’t a massive fan on that interview either.

I think the main difference between HHH/Heyman and this is they have undeniable charisma and skill to be able to get around questions they don’t want to answer and still have it be a good interview - whereas Khan is the most awkward person alive at the best of times and his demeanour is one of Garth Algar being left on air alone. The interview was going to be a disaster regardless.

Not sure I agree with the HHH softball thing either, it was on a different medium so different expectations apply. That was on a BT Sport show designed to promote that weekends Clash at the Castle, whereas the Khan interview was on Helwani’s own show/podcast that has no limitations enforced on him.

 

I'm not even an Helwani apologist, I often find him to be up his own arse for several years now.

Edited October 13, 2022 by METAL ON METAL

[Guest]

Khans not going on these shows to boost their ratings, he’s on to get People to watch his show. 

[Keith Houchen]

6 minutes ago, Louch said:

Khans not going on these shows to boost their ratings, he’s on to get People to watch his show. 

You could kind of describe it as, I dunno, “Promoting”?

I know he’s the biggest money mark, but he’s also the biggest mark for himself, he loves being in the spotlight. 

[Factotum]

1 hour ago, METAL ON METAL said:

Not sure I agree with the HHH softball thing either, it was on a different medium so different expectations appl

Not challenging him on the NXT/AEW thing was just nonsense. Triple H dug himself a hole that he Helwani could have challenged him on. He didn't have to be full on Paxman but to let that fly was ridiculous.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Factotum said:

Not challenging him on the NXT/AEW thing was just nonsense. Triple H dug himself a hole that he Helwani could have challenged him on. He didn't have to be full on Paxman but to let that fly was ridiculous.

That BT sports interview was an advert for CATC, was never gonna get grilling 

[RedRooster]

4 hours ago, Louch said:

Ariel helwanni who happily does fluff pieces for wwe and has stated that aew is going downhill etc? impartial Ariel? Na, no way he’s said that 

Ah come on, using "impartial" in the context of a wrestling interview? That's veering dangerously close to tribalism. What on earth would he get out of saying that if he didn't genuinely feel it to be true?

Let's be honest here, Tony is an absolutely atrocious interview. He frequently veers into kayfaybe, and can be very socially awkward. Clearly there are things that he can't comment on, but if you're going to do interviews like this, or post-event scrum, at least come prepared with a carefully worded PR-line for the subjects you actually can discuss; even the controversial ones.  

Either that, or don't do the interviews and don't hold the post-event pressers. It's situations like this where AEW really misses Cody, who knew exactly how to handle these things. 

[The King Of Swing]

4 hours ago, METAL ON METAL said:

AEW fans on Twitter have gone full AEW fan in going after Helwani on Twitter.

They really are a weird cult-like bunch (not all AEW fans, just the Twitter lot especially) that can’t take criticism - despite readily criticising anything else.

Bet they’ve already forgotten that they were praising Helwani for his interview with MJF a few weeks ago.

Wrestling fans in general are fucking terrible on twitter.

That aside the idea of watching any interview with TS sounds like torture to me.

[Tommy!]

1 hour ago, The King Of Swing said:

Wrestling fans in general are fucking terrible

 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, RedRooster said:

Ah come on, using "impartial" in the context of a wrestling interview? That's veering dangerously close to tribalism. What on earth would he get out of saying that if he didn't genuinely feel it to be true?

Let's be honest here, Tony is an absolutely atrocious interview. He frequently veers into kayfaybe, and can be very socially awkward. Clearly there are things that he can't comment on, but if you're going to do interviews like this, or post-event scrum, at least come prepared with a carefully worded PR-line for the subjects you actually can discuss; even the controversial ones.  

Either that, or don't do the interviews and don't hold the post-event pressers. It's situations like this where AEW really misses Cody, who knew exactly how to handle these things. 

Tribalism is being blind to seeing how in the pocket Herwani is. He gained a reputation for asking the hard questions, that eventually cost him as people want to sell fights, not tell the truth. They may well be his real opinions, but amazing how pro wwe he is now they give him regular work. He’s Calling people liars if they enjoy aew over wwe, does that sound like a journalist or a shill to you? 

[Keith Houchen]

33 minutes ago, Louch said:

Tribalism is being blind to seeing how in the pocket Herwani is. He gained a reputation for asking the hard questions, that eventually cost him as people want to sell fights, not tell the truth. They may well be his real opinions, but amazing how pro wwe he is now they give him regular work. He’s Calling people liars if they enjoy aew over wwe, does that sound like a journalist or a shill to you? 

So he is to WWE what Meltzer is to AEW? Client journalist?

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

So he is to WWE what Meltzer is to AEW? Client journalist?

I’ve yet to see meltzer on aew tv telling their owner how good they are. I’ve never read an observer in my life so I’m no fan of Dave, but they aren’t Doing the same things here. It’s fine for Ariel to be co-opted, just be honest about it 

[Keith Houchen]

27 minutes ago, Louch said:

It’s fine for Ariel to be co-opted, just be honest about it 

Absolutely, as long as people the same people acknowledge that wrestlings premium best known“Journalist” / writer isn’t impartial when it comes to AEW. You’re right, this isn’t the same thing, one is presenting an advert for a show, the other is a cheerleader for a company. 

[RedRooster]

1 hour ago, Louch said:

Tribalism is being blind to seeing how in the pocket Herwani is. He gained a reputation for asking the hard questions, that eventually cost him as people want to sell fights, not tell the truth. They may well be his real opinions, but amazing how pro wwe he is now they give him regular work. He’s Calling people liars if they enjoy aew over wwe, does that sound like a journalist or a shill to you? 

I was a bit surprised to see you of all people say what you said, but you make some fair points. With that said, I’ve not seen any evidence in his interviews that he treats AEW wrestlers and differently than WWE wrestlers.

Frankly, I think a lot of wrestling ‘reporters’ have very unhealthy relationships with both companies simultaneously; which skews how they treat the people who have the ability to withhold their access to big stars. Very few of them are willing to touch the subjects that could actually get them blacklisted - for example; alleged sex crimes or harassment. 

It’s still in Helwani’s interest to gain access to AEW wrestlers, which makes his comments about Tony Khan all the more striking. We’ve seen Tony behave angrily and irrationally towards fair comment before - such as Big Swole - and subjective opinion, such as what we’ve heard from Eric Bischoff.

In addition, it’s not like he’s the only reporter who has made comments like that about Khan. Wade Keller - who had been fairly positive about him - and Jason Powell both criticised his approach to interviews in a podcast this week, how cagey he could be and his tendency to speak in kayfaybe terms. I agree with all of that, to be honest - he’s a weird guy and far from the ideal ambassador for your brand.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

I was a bit surprised to see you of all people say what you said, but you make some fair points. With that said, I’ve not seen any evidence in his interviews that he treats AEW wrestlers and differently than WWE wrestlers.

Frankly, I think a lot of wrestling ‘reporters’ have very unhealthy relationships with both companies simultaneously; which skews how they treat the people who have the ability to withhold their access to big stars. Very few of them are willing to touch the subjects that could actually get them blacklisted - for example; alleged sex crimes or harassment. 

It’s still in Helwani’s interest to gain access to AEW wrestlers, which makes his comments about Tony Khan all the more striking. We’ve seen Tony behave angrily and irrationally towards fair comment before - such as Big Swole - and subjective opinion, such as what we’ve heard from Eric Bischoff.

In addition, it’s not like he’s the only reporter who has made comments like that about Khan. Wade Keller - who had been fairly positive about him - and Jason Powell both criticised his approach to interviews in a podcast this week, how cagey he could be and his tendency to speak in kayfaybe terms. I agree with all of that, to be honest - he’s a weird guy and far from the ideal ambassador for your brand.

Me of all people? Dunno what your saying there 

 

 Here’s helwani trying to justify not asking hunter about Vince while thinking he’s right to go after Khan to talk about the aew issue. Proper cringe, just ban all wrestling journalism and ratings announcements and we can all get back to just talking about shows 

[Tommy!]

As far as I can tell herb muchnick is the only truly impartial wrestling journalist, and he's so obscure on the net i can't even spell check his name.