10 Ways AEW Is Dangerously Close To Following In WCW's Footsteps

1. Billionaire Tony

Tony Khan WCW
YouTube/Denise Salcedo/AEW

Tony Khan's detractors may lazily label him a money mark - as in, a fan who has a ludicrous amount of money to throw at the wrestling business and who will likely be taken advantage of by savvy talent - but Tony doesn't help that perception of himself when he starts to bring up the vast wealth at his disposal.

For example, the recent All Out post-PPV media scrum saw Khan throw his toys out of the pram because WWE happened to run Clash at the Castle and NXT Worlds Collide the same weekend as the AEW show. Not just was Tony irked that he didn't have a monopoly on that weekend's mainstream wrestling action, but he then launched into a rant where he compared the treatment of AEW to how WWE treated Jim Crockett Promotions back in the day.

As Khan put it, "When I compared myself to Jim Crockett Promotions this weekend, I think I got a taste of the same medicine Jim Crockett Promotions took, but I have a lot more f**king money than Jim Crockett did. I’m serious. I’m not gonna sit back and take this bullsh*t.”

Regardless of your profession, anytime someone flaunts their wealth in a public forum, it does nothing but make that person look like an a**hole. Likewise, when you've got stars like Chris Jericho similarly touting his boss' masses of money during interviews, that also doesn't help.

While Ted Turner himself strayed away from doing so, WCW as a promotion would regularly boast about the size of the chequebook. That may get an initial pop from some of your die-hard fans, but to others that serves as doing nothing but making a heel of your company.

You've got money? Great. You can spend obscene amounts to bring in talent? Great. You have enough wealth to not get trampled? Great. Now just crack on with spending that money how you see fit, rather than boasting about it in interviews and press scrums.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.