When you’re the person who owns and runs your own wrestling company, you can post whatever the heck you want on social media. Tony Khan has certainly proven that, particularly over the last year or so.
Though it seems like a long time ago thanks to the crazy speed of the wrestling news cycle in 2024, it was just last month when Khan got into a combative exchange with USA Network on X (yes, the former Twitter), defending his push of Hook for a world title shot in AEW while dismissing the same thing for Jinder Mahal in WWE.
Earlier this month, Khan responded to the news that Rossy Ogawa had been dismissed from STARDOM with this semi-subtweet:
Bye Rossy! pic.twitter.com/rF8RJSjuqS
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) February 5, 2024
It’s not hard to find detractors and defenders for the way Khan conducts himself on social media. The former feel he should be above stuff like this and concentrate on running AEW, while the latter say it’s all in good fun and that it gets people thinking and talking about the company.
What does Khan himself say about his tweeting? He was asked about it by Adrian Hernandez, and while he didn’t really answer the question directly, he certainly doesn’t seem to see it as a negative (h/t Fightful for the transcription).
We’ve been able to promote the show and build engagement. Also, the company has a great presence. We have a great connection with the fans. We’ve been able to build real engagement at times. There is tangible proof of that and our huge TV ratings and the fact that three of the last four weeks, Dynamite has beat the NBA on ESPN straight up. We’ve had great success connecting with our fans. I think what we have going works really well.
It’s hard to argue with his strategy if you subscribe to the theory that any publicity is good publicity. There’s also an argument to be made that if you are the challenger in an industry with a heavily entrenched top dog, social media is one of the prime ways to ensure people find you relevant.
That said, there have been times when Khan has tweeted something and your first reaction is to wince. It doesn’t sound like that’s going to stop, which will continue to keep things interesting if nothing else.
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