12 Things You Didn't Know Tony Khan BANNED In AEW
12. Chair Shots To The Head (Sort Of, Sometimes)
Back in July 2023, the ever-reliable and prolific Fightful Select reported that AEW - the company that offered creative expression as a selling point to both wrestlers and fans - was tightening things up. This remit, reported by Fightful as protocols "to help protect talent, staff, crew and fans", did not last. The first spot said to be banned was unprotected chair shots to the head.
This is something over which AEW has always been indecisive. On its second show ever - Fyter Fest - Shawn Spears turned heel on Cody Rhodes by blasting him with, yes, an unprotected chair shot to the head. This was very polarising, since the repeated use of this spot is said to have contributed to the CTE crisis, the extent to which will only be determined, grimly, when more wrestlers from the late 1990s and early 2000s pass away. Chris Benoit, Test, and Balls Mahoney. amongst others, were diagnosed with the condition in their autopsies. Cody and Tony Khan expressed remorse over the incident, the idea behind which was to shave the chair down so that it felt more like an Attitude Era-style baking tray. The edge of the chair caused the hard-way blood loss. An AEW source reached out to SB Nation in the aftermath of the incident, claiming that the spot had been "essentially" banned. It hadn't, or at least, AEW chanced their luck.
The first Blood and Guts match of 2021 was chair shot-happy. Insofar as this thing can ever be clever, this at least set the tone effectively - which was ruined by Chris Jericho's woefully contrived attempt to be as iconic as Mick Foley. Hell, Powerhouse Hobbs blasted Kenny Omega in the dome with an unprotected shot three months after Fightful released the report.
The word "repeated" in the definition of CTE was conveniently ignored when AEW got concern-trolled for this - that, and the fact that in both WWE and AEW, wrestlers sometimes get thrown into chairs wedged between turnbuckles with no ensuing moral panic.