Jade Cargill & Tony Khan put Stokely Hathaway over huge

AEW introduced three new talents to their line-up last night (May 29) at Double or Nothing, including two of them in the same post-match segment. One of those — manager Stokley Hathaway, formerly known in WWE NXT as Malcolm Bivens — was a hot topic when his new client Jade Cargill joined Tony Khan at the media Q&A after the PPV.

Khan explained how signing Hathaway came about, noting that the 30 Day non-compete following his WWE release had just expired:

“We were lucky. There is a lot of independent wrestling and stuff going on, I think he’s been around. I guess he’s been around Vegas. I had never met him until today, I swear on my life. I never had a conversation with him. I’ve had him in mind since 2018, actually. I remember being way back in the day, actually with Cody [Rhodes]. I was saying, ‘I really like Stokely Hathaway.’ I’m a big fan of him.”

The TBS champion said she didn’t know the pairing was coming until yesterday, but she’s very excited about her new on-screen partnership:

“He’s the best talker in the game. Who wouldn’t want anything less than that, somebody to represent a superstar that is about to come forth in front of all your eyes. Tony Khan made the best decision he could ever make in this situation.”

Asked about pairing someone who’s excelled at interviews like Cargill with someone known for his microphone skills, wrestling historian TK made a lofty comparison:

“I think it’s an obvious solution, putting one of the great champions in wrestling, who’s already got so much charisma, with a great talker and they can be like [Nick] Bockwinkel and [Bobby] Heenan, a great talker with another great talker and a great mind. So I think they could be the new Bockwinkel and Heenan.”

Comparing the new duo to a pair of Hall of Famers who were over huge as heels in the AWA? That’s high praise. It should be fun watching Stokely & Jade live up to it.