WWE has a disgusting ongoing business relationship with the Saudi Arabian government, where Vince McMahon’s company is paid absurd sums of money each year to help promote the government’s propaganda and get people to look the other way on all the human rights abuses and other atrocities perpetuated by those in power.
When this topic comes up in the pro wrestling conversation, some of the folks who will defend WWE to their dying breath like to bring AEW and the Khan family into the discussion and put them on the same plane as WWE, looking for a way to justify WWE’s amoral greed.
AEW President Tony Khan is aware of this reaction, and he’s pushing back on it. The following quote of his comes from the Full Gear 2021 post-show media scrum, where he denied that his father Shad has any business relationship with the government of Saudi Arabia:
“I’ve been wanting to say something for a long time. I’m just gonna say it. I have never brought this up, but I see people say stuff online, and me bringing this up will probably only make it worse, but I’m just gonna say it.
My dad bought the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto from a person who is a Saudi person five years ago, and that is the beginning and the end of it. It is very much an apples and oranges thing, when you compare the ongoing business relationship that is going on with Saudi Arabia to what my dad did, purchasing a property...from a person, not the government. But I see people say, it’s like oh Shad Khan did that...That’s bullshit.
...my dad is not involved in ongoing businesses. He bought this hotel from a person years ago. Very different thing from what’s going on in that part of the world.”
What do you make of Tony Khan’s explanation, Cagesiders?
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