Matt Hardy believes WWE’s current working relationship with TNA was done primarily to spite AEW after the latter two promotions had a talent-share agreement in 2020 and 2021. Hardy said that AEW CEO Tony Khan’s tweets upset the powers that be in WWE, prompting the pettiness from sports entertainment’s premier fed.
Khan agrees with Hardy’s accusation, revealing as much on Tuesday’s edition of The Ariel Helwani Show.
He also revealed his knowledge of wrestling history in a moment that showed he’s just as much of a fan as a billionaire promoter, namedropping Smoky Mountain Wrestling’s visionary, Jim Cornette, and controversial former WWE chairman Vince McMahon.
“I respect that opinion a lot and I think it’s probably true. The fact that Matt said it, that’s really cool. It’s a very interesting collaboration. Matt hit the nail on the head and it makes sense. AEW is a very strong challenger brand. It’s not that unusual,” Khan said to Helwani.
“I remember when WCW was starting to do better, and Smoky Mountain was running Georgia, Vince McMahon called Jim Cornette and sent a bunch of WWF wrestlers to Smoky Mountain. I do think when you have a strong challenger brand, it’s not unusual to see the WWF collaborate with another company. I don’t take it personally. It makes some sense, looking at the wrestling playbook for the WWF.”
Khan has not backed down from addressing his competitor since reigniting fed wars with AEW’s arrival in 2019. While WWE has rarely directly mentioned AEW on their airwaves, there have been storylines written on Dynamite and Collision with hostility towards having come from WWE.
Khan didn’t address Hardy’s point that the AEW-TNA partnership was one-sided in his company’s favor, though.
Hardy, a 14-time champion in WWE, having held the tag team titles, the U.S. Title, the ECW title, the Cruiserweight title, the European title, and the Hardcore title, has appeared alongside his brother, Jeff, on WWE NXT, having most recently faced DarkState on two different occasions in October.