10 Ways AEW Is Dangerously Close To Following In WCW's Footsteps
1. Billionaire Tony
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.