AEW President, CEO, General Manager and Head Of Creative Tony Khan says he is very excited about the company working with The Owen Hart Foundation and Owen’s widow, Martha Hart. Khan says Martha is a very principled woman, who wanted to make sure the deal was something that will benefit The Foundation, and be respectful of Owen’s name and legacy, and of Martha herself.
As noted at this link, AEW and The Owen Hart Foundation recently announced a working relationship that will see the company hold an annual tournament in Owen’s name. They will also release Owen merchandise, which includes an appearance in the AEW console video game, and more.
In an update, Khan recently spoke with Mike Johnson of PWInsider and was asked what it meant for him, as a pro wrestling fan, to be able to be the conduit that helps bring Martha and The Owen Hart Foundation back to wrestling.
“I’m so happy. I’m so happy because wrestling was a huge part of Owen Hart’s life,” Khan said. “Martha Hart is a very intelligent, very principled woman. She’s not the biggest wrestling fan, but she knows that for Owen Hart, it was a huge part of his life, and she has a very nuanced, articulate thoughts on it. She’s very well aware of Owen’s career path and the different places he wrestled and, believe me, he wrestled for more than one company in his career, and she has a lot of knowledge of it, including his matches with New Japan, his brief stint with WCW. He worked with Joel Goodhart and of course, his wrestling in Stampede and also in Europe for Otto Wanz in the Catch Wrestling Association.
“So, Owen Hart, incredibly well traveled wrestler, one place we never had the good fortune to host Owen Hart was AEW. He’s a favorite of so many of ours, and it meant a lot to be able to connect with Martha and offer this olive branch and say that we would love to have you and Owen be a part of AEW. We would love to work with the Owen Hart Foundation and reestablish the legacy of Owen Hart in professional wrestling where we haven’t seen him in terms of being in video games and action figures and on TV, on wrestling each week and celebrating his great career. It’s just we don’t hear that name enough, Owen Hart. [Martha] was very principled and she wanted to make sure this was something that would benefit the Owen Hart Foundation, which it will, that it was something that will be respectful of Owen’s name and legacy and of Martha, herself. And absolutely, that’s what we’re here to do. And so I’m very, very excited about it.”
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