Ariel Helwani is speaking out after AEW President Tony Khan called him a “fraud” after his appearance on Friday’s edition of WWE SmackDown.
Helwani is primarily an MMA journalist, but also covers some pro wrestling. In recent months, he’s interviewed WWE executive Paul “Triple H” Levesque, AEW President Tony Khan and several WWE superstars. He’s also worked for WWE in a limited capacity, narrating video packages and most recently, serving as an on-screen correspondent.
Several people blasted Helwani as unethical, including Khan. Several months ago, Helwani called his interview with Tony Khan “one of the most frustrating, and to a degree, not-so-fun interviews of my career.” That relationship has deteriorated even further, with Khan labeling Helwani a “fraud” and Helwani referring to Khan as “the snowman.”
Ariel Helwani Responds to Tony Khan
Helwani hasn’t been phased by Tony Khan’s attack. After SmackDown, he wrote on Twitter that it was a “perfect” experience. “Life is short,” he tweeted. “I’m enjoying the ride. Thanks to the real ones for the support along the way”.
On Monday, he addressed the situation on the latest edition of his MMA Hour podcast.
“I see this tweet from Tony Khan, and I read it like three times, I swear to god, I thought it was fake. I thought it was fake. You know, because anybody can have a blue check, right? This guy doesn’t follow me, he’s never tweeted me, I was like, ‘There’s no way that he actually tweeted this.’
Number one, proving that he was watching, which is bizarre, why would you put the competition over and show that you’re watching some random SmackDown at some random moment in telecast?
Number two, putting down his own guy in the process, the great Tony Schiavone, Atlanta sports legend. Calling me a fraud, and then saying that I am as much as a journalist as Tony Schiavone. Now, I’m trying to think, what is the point that he is trying to prove here? He is trying to prove that Schiavone isn’t a journalist? Correct me if I’m wrong, as an Atlanta guy, doesn’t he kind of have some respect as a media dude?
So this guy is calling me a fraud, then he’s saying, Tony Schiavone is as much of a journalist as me, I guess trying to imply that he’s not a real journalist and I’m not a real journalist? Why insult your own guy in the process?
The real thing he should have done is not say anything. Why are you putting over the competition’s broadcast? Your show is coming up, nice little cheeky hashtag there on the tweet as well. You talk about an own-goal, and I know Fulham is having a better season, they certainly haven’t had a great run with the Khans involved, but, this was one of the all-time great own-goals. I just couldn’t believe it. I had to check multiple times, is this really him?”
Backstage Reaction to Tony Khan’s Tweet to Ariel Helwani
Helwani is convinced Tony Khan is still upset that he did so poorly during their interview, which he finds ridiculous. AEW reached out to him about having Khan on his show and he agreed. They didn’t put any restrictions on what he could ask and he thinks Khan is mad that he came off as foolish and a person who wasn’t comfortable doing anything but promote his product.
Backstage at SmackDown, he questioned why Khan was so quick to call him a fraud during his moment. He said the ‘Old Ariel’ would have let a tweet like this bother him. He was actually invigorated by it and thought it was hilarious.
“The amazing thing was how everything spread backstage,” said Helwani. “Everybody was, ‘Did you see the tweet? Did you see the tweet?’ I’ve just been here for four hours. I don’t even know a lot of these people. ‘This is amazing. How could he have done this? Was that really him? What a ….’ Yeah, I guess it was really him!’ Bizarre.”
Ariel Helwani’s Work with WWE
Helwani said he didn’t even know he’d be attending Elimination Chamber weekend until Wednesday of last week. He’s had conversations in the past about doing things for WWE. He did the video package for Extreme Rules a few months ago. WWE offered to pay him for it, he said no, because he wanted to avoid conflicts of interest. Someone advised him that he was stupid to refuse payment for his work. He came to the conclusion that he isn’t a wrestling journalist, so it shouldn’t be an issue.
Many years ago, Jeff Jarrett tried to get him on the creative team for Impact Wrestling. He didn’t accept the position, but working in the wrestling business has always been a ‘bucket list’ thing for him. He made a promise to himself that if he would seriously consider accepting an offer from WWE if that came up.
The Elimination Chamber opportunity came up and said, I’m going to do it. I’m not going to live and die by people’s opinions on social media. He’s going to do what brings him joy. He says yes, it was a paid gig. He joked that he technically hasn’t been paid yet and hopes he didn’t blow it with all the controversy that’s unfolded over the weekend.
Helwani gave a shout out to Triple h for going to bat for him, believing him, being welcoming and kind to him throughout their interactions. Helwani says he was on cloud nine over the SmackDown appearance until he saw people complaining on social media.
