Tony Khan's Dream AEW Signing Revealed (AEW News)
You'll NEVER guess who Tony Khan wants to see on AEW Dynamite. NEVER!
AEW boss Tony Khan has named none other than basketball great Shaquille O'Neal as the number one star he'd like to see back in the company. For context, Sportico (at its Invest in Sports: New York event at NASDAQ’s headquarters in New York) asked Khan to name a "dream signing" who was typically considered to be 'outside the bubble' when it comes to pro wrestling.
Big Shaq got the nod.
Khan reminisced about O'Neal teaming up with Jade Cargill vs. Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet on the 3 March 2021 episode of flagship show Dynamite. Apparently, the big guy left quite an impression on Tony: "He disappeared out of the ambulance in 2021 and we haven’t seen him since. So, I would love to get Shaq back in the ring. He’s gotta be on of the all-time greatest stars ever in basketball, and he’s undefeated in AEW".
"Undefeated" is technically true, but O'Neal is only 1-0 in All Elite Wrestling. It's also interesting that Khan didn't really mention who the NBA legend was teaming up with that night, or who his opponents were. There might've been a lot of laughter had he exclusively name-dropped Velvet without talking about Jade or Cody.
2021 was a golden period for AEW, so it's perhaps no wonder Khan looked back to it and picked out Shaq. It remains to be seen if bringing back somebody like O'Neal would do anything to help the promotion though - AEW ratings have been slipping for a long time now, so it's unlikely.
Tony Khan would love to bring back some Shaq Fu anyway.