Tony Khan opens up about a very vulnerable moment he had with the AEW crowd.
Hours after CM Punk was fired from the company on September 2nd AEW ran the United Center in Chicago for an episode of Collision. Khan addressed the live crowd prior to the show going on the air and explained why he felt necessary to terminate Punk from the company, a speech that was initially met with boos that later turned to light cheers. If you missed it, you can check out Khan’s full speech here.
Khan spoke about the crowd speech during a recent interview with Insider. He would be asked why he talked to the crowd from the entrance ramp and not the center of the ring.
You can’t see everybody’s face from the center of the ring. You have to choose one side of the crowd to face when you’re in the ring. And I wanted to be able to see everybody. I felt like, I’m not a wrestler and I don’t need to be in the ring, and for this moment, I thought I would just sit down and talk to everybody. That’s why I brought out a chair.
Khan later revealed what Ricky Steamboat told him immediately after his speech when he returned backstage.
And when I was done and walked backstage, the first person I saw was Ricky Steamboat and he said, “That was great, you turned the crowd. You turned them around. That’s so hard to do, and you did it.” I felt I at least owed that much to the wrestlers and the fans, to go out there and talk to everybody.
While Khan spoke about this moment, he continued to dodge questions asked by Insider on Punk and the incident.
You can check out the full interview here.