D-Von Dudley believes AEW President Tony Khan needs to surround himself with better people.
Speaking on Maven Huffman’s YouTube channel, D-Von praised AEW’s wrestlers and in-ring product but criticized how the company is operated.
“I like AEW. I like the wrestlers. I have a lot of friends in AEW. I appreciate their style. I appreciate them as a whole, as a company. What I’m not a particularly big fan of is the way the organization is run.
“I don’t hate anybody in AEW office-wise. I’m not going to say I don’t respect them, but I do have a problem with you being a big fan of the business, opening up your own company and not listening to people who have done something in this business or made something of themselves in this business to be able to give you advice on how to run your company.”
D-Von accused Khan of listening to the wrong people and claimed he has heard similar concerns from people within AEW.
“I feel that he puts his trust into the wrong people that are in it for the wrong reasons. I feel a lot of these people take advantage of him.
“I feel that wholeheartedly because I’ve had people in AEW tell me that people take advantage of Tony. They stroke his ego so that he can go, ‘Oh, okay. Yeah, great. What do you want?’ And he’ll give it to them. But again, that’s the wrong way of doing things.”
D-Von said Khan needs someone willing to be honest with him, regardless of whether Khan takes offense to the criticism.
“In my opinion, I think Tony needs somebody that’s going to be real and be in his corner. When this comes out, if Tony takes offense to what I’m saying, then I don’t know what to tell you. I’m being real with you. You don’t pay me. I don’t work for you. I’m only telling you what I see from the outside looking in.”
Maven said he gained respect for Khan after watching him personally check on wrestlers following their matches.
“I don’t think he knows the wrestling business the way the McMahons do, but I think he’s open to learning and I think he cares. That’s what won me over.
“Every wrestler that came out of the ring, he got up out of his seat, took the headphones off and went over and legitimately asked how they were and what they thought. He meant it.”
D-Von stressed that he wants AEW to succeed but believes its leadership needs to listen to the criticism coming from inside the company.
“I just think that he can get a lot better people surrounding him, working with him and getting that company where it needs to be. Don’t worry about beating WWE. Worry about getting AEW to that top-notch level where they need to be.
“The wrestling is phenomenal. I love those guys there. I think they put on a hell of a show when they get in the ring.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Maven Huffman’s YouTube channel, with a h/t to Wrestling Headlines for the transcription.
