Tony Khan created a lot of buzz for his promotion when he brought in people like CM Punk, Adam Cole, and Bryan Danielson to AEW in close successions. Many believe that WWE reacted to these big debuts by bringing back Brock Lesnar and Becky Lynch at the SummerSlam PPV. Though the AEW president is not sure about it.
Khan was asked if he thinks the SummerSlam returns were a reactive booking from WWE during an interview with Dazn. Replying to it, Tony said that he can’t be sure:
“I can’t say for sure what’s on their minds; Summerslam is a big deal for those guys over there so maybe they had it long in their plans that it would be the place that Brock and Becky returned. We’ve got to keep doing what we’ve been doing so far and that’s trying to give people, our fans, the best possible wrestling product we can.
Tony Khan On If WWE Considers AEW A Competition
WWE has tried to undermine AEW as a competition every chance they have gotten. Discussing whether they actually think AEW is a rival for them, Tony Khan mentioned how he has heard that his shows are watched in the gorilla position in WWE:
“Do they see us as rivals or competition? They say we’re not, but I’ve heard that AEW shows are on monitors in the Gorilla position over there, so I take that as a compliment if they’re watching us whilst trying to run their own show.”
Khan went on to claim that he admires them for doing this. According to him, trying to run a show while watching another one is something else. He said that he puts everything he has into producing AEW shows. There is no way he can watch something else while trying to get on with things.