Michael Cole Takes A Shot At AEW's Tony Khan During WWE Elimination Chamber 2023

The WWE man couldn't help but take a dig at the AEW President at last night's PLE.

by Andrew Pollard
Michael Cole Tony Khan
AEW

Last night's WWE Elimination Chamber saw Michael Cole take a playful dig at AEW's Tony Khan.

For those who missed it, Khan engaged in a bizarre beef with combat sports and pro wrestling journalist Ariel Helwani on Friday evening.

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When Helwani was seen in the crowd for WWE SmackDown, the AEW President took to Twitter to lambast Ariel as a "fraud" and take a swipe at his "unbiased journalism". Previously, Khan had been a guest on Helwani's MMA Hour podcast in what proved to be an extremely uncomfortable interview where the AEW man refused to answer the majority of questions posed to him.

As to where Michael Cole comes into this, Helwani's presence in the Bell Center crowd last night was used by the WWE commentator to take a shot at Tony Khan's latest rant.

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With Ariel shown alongside legendary fighter - and fellow Montreal native - Georges St-Pierre, Cole referenced Helwani as "the unbiased, world renowned combat sports journalist" who "asks all the hard questions, whether you want to answer them or not".

For those not necessarily familiar with Ariel Helwani's work, one of his current jobs is covering WWE for BT Sport in the UK, and he has also recently done some voiceover work for WWE, such as narrating a hype video for this weekend's Elimination Chamber.

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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 and Presenter, 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 day job, his role as 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 and Eli Roth to Kevin Smith and the Russo Brothers, to Kevin Conroy and Frank Miller, to Bret Hart and Sting, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, and Brian Flynn, to many, many more. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is a long-standing season ticket holder and an FSA Award-winner for his time co-hosting the Fearless in Devotion podcast.