The war of words between AEW President Tony Khan and journalist Ariel Helwani has continued tonight on Twitter.
As noted earlier, Helwani appeared on tonight’s Elimination Chamber go-home edition of WWE SmackDown on FOX for two crowd segments to hype up the show-closing segment with fellow Montrealer Sami Zayn. Michael Cole introduced Helwani as a “combat sports journalist.” Khan quickly tweeted to call Helwani a fraud, and also plugged AEW Rampage, which was already off the air at that point due to the early start time this week.
“You’re a fraud @arielhelwani. You’re as legitimate of a reporter as @tonyschiavone24. #AEWRampage,” Khan wrote in that first tweet.
In an update, Helwani responded to Khan’s original tweet and thanked him for watching SmackDown. Helwani also called Khan a “snowman,” which may be a reference to unconfirmed rumors on extracurricular activities Khan may be involved in.
“Thanks for watching, old friend! Can’t wait for our next chat. (Also, don’t listen to the snowman, Schiavone. You’re a legend in my books.),” Helwani wrote.
Khan then fired back and wrote, “Good luck with the unbiased journalism.”
You may remember how Helwani interviewed Khan on The MMA Hour last year. After the interview, Helwani commented on why the interview was “one of the most frustrating, and to a degree, not-so-fun interviews” of his career.
“He didn’t want to answer anything,” Helwani said on October 22 as detailed here. “You’re going to come on and promote X, Y, and Z, great. And I’ll play that dance with you. I did, at the beginning. But you got to give us something, to not even tell me how you were feeling. I’m not asking for specifics, alright fine I am, but is Punk going to wrestle for you, is he coming back, you don’t want to get into it, fine. But tell me how you were feeling. Give me something.”
Helwani covers WWE for BT Sport. He is a longtime pro wrestling fan, and is friends with WWE CEO Nick Khan. He also narrated a WWE Elimination Chamber video package for Zayn vs. Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns this week.
Helwani has not responded to Khan’s last tweet as of this writing, but as noted earlier, he did tweet comments on Zayn’s massive reaction at the Bell Centre.
You can see the related tweets below:
You're a fraud @arielhelwani. You're as legitimate of a reporter as @tonyschiavone24. #AEWRampage
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) February 18, 2023
Thanks for watching, old friend! Can’t wait for our next chat.
(Also, don’t listen to the snowman, Schiavone. You’re a legend in my books.)
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) February 18, 2023
Good luck with the unbiased journalism.
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) February 18, 2023
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