AEW President Tony Khan's appearance on "The Ariel Helwani" show last week interested many fans and those within the wrestling industry, as Khan and Helwani have not always gotten along, with the pair having some public beef on social media following their first interview. They patched things up last Tuesday on the show, with Khan providing thoughtful answers to many of Helwani's questions. Khan brought up WCW at points in the interview when speaking about counter-programming and AEW being a "challenger brand," something that caught the attention of WWE Hall of Famer, and former WCW executive, Eric Bischoff.
Despite Bischoff often being critical of Khan, on his recent "83 Weeks" podcast,Bischoff said he wanted to give him some credit. Bischoff said Khan handled himself well during the Helwani interview.
"Ariel was asking him some tough questions and I think Tony handled him professionally," Bischoff said. "I don't think he was being as honest as perhaps he could have been, but I don't think necessarily being 100% honest and exposing your emotional perspective about things necessarily serves you well. Certainly hasn't served Tony well in the past. Typically when Tony does an interview, it's a trainwreck. This wasn't that. Tony put himself and his company in a favorable light."
Bischoff said that Khan's distinction of AEW being a "challenger brand" makes him laugh, as he's not sure what they're challenging, but said it sounds nice and the term fits well in interviews. When speaking with Helwani, Khan was discussing WWE's counter-programming efforts to AEW pay-per-views, as well as WWE's partnership with TNA when calling his company a challenger brand.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "83 Weeks" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
