Stating the Obvious: Tony Khan is a Toxic Enabler

I just had to write about this. I had to. Other wrestling fans reading this know why. You've all heard about it. However, the main part of this story will be saved for later, I promise. Because of that, and everything else I've seen, I've come to a conclusion: Tony Khan is a big time enabler. The evidence is right in front of us, but first, an introduction.

The man with the permanent "Deer in the Headlights" expression on his face is Tony Khan. He is the co-founder, president, executive producer, and head of creative (among many other titles) of All Elite Wrestling, having founded the promotion with Shahid Khan, Tony's father and the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars. AEW has been in existence since January 1, 2019, and we wrestling fans were pretty excited for this, as we saw AEW as potential competition against the top-dog promotion known as World Wrestling Entertainment. We would also see AEW as a better alternative to WWE and other promotions, but like every wrestling promotion, AEW has drama.

Now we all know Vince McMahon's history. He never holds problematic people accountable. I mean, they still promote Ric Flair. Brock Lesnar's a grade-A prick and primadonna, but to borrow Brokeback Mountain's famous line, Vince "can't quit" Brock. Matt Riddle, Gable Steveson, and JD McDonagh have all committed crimes against women, yet they have jobs in WWE still. Corey Graves still has a job even though he bullied Mauro Ranallo (who was also victim-shamed by Vince) and makes misogynistic (and borderline racist) comments on commentary. Now, there's no way Tony Khan could operate like that, right? No chance in hell, right?

Yeah...about that...

Turns out TK's quite the enabler himself, and the last month has been Tony Khan really doing his best to make the wrong people happy.

CM Punk

I could do a whole story on CM Punk's bullshit, and honestly, I'm planning on it. It kills me that I gave this guy the benefit of the doubt for so long, and it's mainly because he was right about a few things in that 2011 pipebomb. Even after he walked out of WWE in 2014, I continued to watch Punk's stuff in enjoyment, and yes, I put his drama in the back of my mind when he debuted in AEW. You know what else I had on the back of my mind? A fear that Punk would pull this shit again. Sure enough, he did. But it was more than that. Along with walking out, Punk basically started shit with members of The Elite.

Now, any other boss would say, "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out." Not Tony Khan. Not only does Tony bring back Punk like nothing happened, he has him come back to AEW on the premiere of Collision...in Chicago! You know, Punk comes across as someone who mocks the concept of safe spaces, yet when he returned to AEW, he had the safest space possible. He got to go in front of his home crowd, in front of a positive reaction, and give a self-serving promo where he doubles down on his arrogant rhetoric. I was upset when Punk returned, and I was furious when he got to return in his home city. To me, it was Tony Khan rewarding bad behavior.

Oh, but it gets worse.

The Britt Baker/Thunder Rosa situation

As angry as the enabling of Punk makes me, this upsets me even more. So we all know the story: Britt Baker flat out bullied Thunder Rosa. Hell, she did it on TV. We saw the first episode of AEW All Access. What I heard was racist shaming from Britt towards Thunder Rosa, accusing TR of being "disloyal" to AEW because she wasn't showing up to events. Never mind the fact that Thunder Rosa was legit injured! And that really triggered me, because it's the same shit fans did to Lamar Jackson during the last few weeks of the 2022 NFL season. Jackson had a legit injury and was out for the rest of that year, yet racist fans accused him of being a "quitter" and being "selfish." Even worse, Saraya and Toni Storm were on that same show agreeing with Britt's bigoted nonsense.

What I and other fans would learn is that there's a clique that has been bullying Thunder Rosa, and it consists of Britt, Saraya, Toni, The Bunny, and Ruby Soho. I also learned that a lot of the women on the roster actually reported the bullying right to Tony Khan. Care to take a guess as to who TK actually punished? If you said the bullies, as the line from Billy Madison goes, "I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul." Sadly, the women who reported the bullying ended up punished, mainly with their TV time reduced. And as we found out, there's another victim in this sordid tale.

The iconic bad-ass in this pic is LuFisto, one of my all-time favorites. A 20-year veteran. A hardcore legend. Competed and won everywhere. From what I learned, that wasn't good enough for certain people. Britt was very rude to LuFisto and so was Ruby. LuFisto spoke out about her AEW experience and stated that "bad booking" (as many believe) wasn't the problem, it was young stars and talent denigrating each other that was the problem. Sadly, LuFisto's statement got totally mocked, and shortly before writing this piece, I read statements from a lot of AEW's women (as well as MJF, AEW's World Champion) accusing LuFisto of attempting to turn women against each other, and saying that all the women love and support each other in AEW.

Oh brother, if that isn't the wrestling equivalent of then-Washington Commanders president Bruce Allen's "The culture is actually damn good" statement, I don't know what is.

It's easy to blame the talent for saying that, but this is a Tony Khan move. He basically had his wrestlers go out there and play damage control and basically denounce LuFisto as a liar. It would be easy for me to be angry at this, but honestly, this made me sad--to the near point of tears. LuFisto spoke out and stood up for what was right, and she found herself unjustly isolated. I know that feeling. I was once bullied on social media, yet that forum took the bullies' side, leaving me feeling like I had no one on my side. I read LuFisto's response to all of that mess, and it was just heartbreaking that she had to feel so downtrodden because of Tony Khan's bullshit.

I know this much: my respect for Tony Khan decreased faster than the rising shock among WWE fans regarding Becky vs Trish not being on SummerSlam. Speaking of that, WWE's mess would have been the main topic, but Tony Khan being a toxic enabler managed to make the bad women's booking for SummerSlam look like a blip on the radar. The bottom line is this: Tony Khan needs to stop enabling problematic wrestlers. It is not hard to hold somebody accountable for wrongdoing. It's really not.