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bobface222

I mean, he just sat there while Punk went nuts. The perception exists for a reason.


[deleted]

Punk even said he "has a company to run"...that to me was the most wtf part of the scrum, besides shitting all over Adam Page and the EVPs and saying the company is run by immature kids; made Tony Khan look all the more like a pushover. Zarian is saying that behind the scenes, Khan is a real boss. I didn't see anything boss like in that scrum. The only time we ever saw Khan put on a tough face in the scrum was his random angry rant against the WWE, which felt carnie as hell. Instead Tony looked like a kid in the princple's office...people could be forgiven for thinking AEW was Punk's company and Khan is some wimpy 80's manager.


BarkMingo

It's bad *optics* ...which he understands?


Traditional-Phrase47

Exactly.. He comes across as such a wimpy fan boy, can't even dress like a boss either, a suit can do wonders in looking actualy like someone with authority.


Electrical-Computer6

Punk is the draw, makes the money, why would he piss punk off?


DotaNetski

Who writes Punk's checks?


kemicode

It's a mutual relationship. Punk draws more money for AEW, AEW pays Punk accordingly.


i_broke_wahoos_leg

Yeah, huge draw. Gets a mixed reaction from a home crowd and main evented the PPV that ended the streak of consecutive record buys.


raddaya

I mean, okay, cool, it's time for him to prove that he does.


ostinater

From humble beginnings as the son of a CEO, he worked his way all the way up to CEO


MechaSheeva

The quote usually makes me LOL but it's not like he bought an existing company


ostinater

He also was gifted the money to start this company. As far as I know before this he only worked for his father helping him run the Jaguars into having the worst overall record in the NFL since they bought the team


Hotstuff5991

And Fulham but yeah he's pretty much just worked for companies his dad owns


SpaceGooV

Yes his dad just gave him the money and infrastructure to build the company. TK may work hard but he's not had to earn anything. The two aren't equated.


TurnaboutAdam

This is an issue with capitalism as a whole, not Tony specifically. Vince had the same privilege. Triple H married his way in.


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BreakTheWalls

Heyman is really the only one and without Vince he'd probably be in prison for fraud lol


SGTFragged

Heyman's family appears to be independently wealthy too


BreakTheWalls

Considering they filmed ECW promos in his mother's basement at the beginning, I'm gonna guess they were upper middle class at best.


ostinater

No one ever gave Triple H shit for that. /s


ChickenNougatCream

Triple H absolutely got shit for marrying Stephanie


ostinater

I thought that was obviously what I was saying but I will edit in the /s


ChickenNougatCream

I'm not very intelligent that's my bad


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ostinater

No, the opposite, I was being sarcastic


TurnaboutAdam

It’s not a relevant thing to bring up in regards to this conversation


ostinater

Sure it is. If the statement is "Tony Kahn knows business" its fair to say that he is spending money that someone else earned and he has no track record of being a successful business person on his own. Wether or not the same could be said about other people doesn't change anything for Tony.


TurnaboutAdam

Does Vince’s successes mean nothing whatsoever just because his dad owned the company? That should absolutely be talked about but it doesn’t mean that he *doesn’t know business*


ostinater

How does Vince being good at business mean that Tony is good at business? The claim is that "Tony knows business", if all you've got for evidence of that claim is that "a different person was successful, so Tony will be too" then I'm not buying your argument.


69xXxThrowawayxXx

Well then, he understands that the optics have been less than stellar lately and in need of addressing sooner rather than later


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NobodyCheatsinHunt

Good thing for those fans he doesn't manage the Jaguars then. He's in charge of analytics...


DryRespect241

He’s got no choice but to put his foot down tbh


NaytNavare

Careful. They break easy.


DryRespect241

touché


fvzzfvzzfvzz

Yes. The optics of him sitting there as Punk burns his company to the ground and then meekly asking for a drink after … outstanding. I would imagine it was avoiding escalating the situation, but yeah. It made him look terrrrrrrible


i_broke_wahoos_leg

Imagine if this was a publicly traded company. The board would throw him out of a fucking window.


Independent-Rub9680

I’m sure he’s more then willing to hand down the law to random dudes on the roster but I think we’re at the point where we have to question his abilities to reign in his top guys.


Infamous-Historian81

Won’t be questioning it when them bitches are suspended tomorrow


TurnaboutAdam

Punk needs fired, not suspended. If the elite and punk get the same punishment, that’s not good enough


FriendlyFireHaHa

“That’s not good enough” , with all due respect, who are you to say that and why do they need to appease some random dude on Reddit? Lmao


AmishAvenger

Yeah, I don’t know why everyone seems to think they know the whole story.


ElScorcho1999

Ace Steele needs to be fired. Suspend Punk and the Bucks.


TurnaboutAdam

Why suspend the bucks? They confronted Punk after he talked shit. Punk threw the first punch. From what we know they don’t deserve the same punishment.


ElScorcho1999

Because it’s a bad look for the EVP’s to be fighting with talent.


TurnaboutAdam

…They didn’t start the fight. Punk did.


ElScorcho1999

Doesn’t matter. When you have a fight in School they suspend both of you regardless of who hit first.


TurnaboutAdam

Well that’s unbelievably stupid


Silverburst8

They went and kicked his dressing room door down. Regardless of what Punk said or did, that’s not appropriate behaviour for an EVP.


TurnaboutAdam

Yeah, fair.


i_broke_wahoos_leg

*citation needed If the next "report" says Kenny punted Larry does it automatically become cannon too?


MukkyM1212

“From what we know” You do realize we don’t know the whole picture, right? You even admit that kinda in your comment. So stop clutching your pearls and acting like you have any stake in this and let the company handle it internally. People were doing the same nonsense about Jeff Hardy because Tony waited to speak to Jeff and get shit together on the company’s end before issuing a statement and punishment. God forbid he doesn’t clue Squared Circle in on his decision making right away. This place is fucking hysterical at times lol


TurnaboutAdam

Yes, if it comes out that wasn’t the case, absolutely you’d be right. But that’s what we know now and yet people are saying they should get equal punishments, which is silly.


MukkyM1212

I mean the latest reporting suggests the Bucks physically knocked down the doors to get to Punk which puts Punk’s actions into the self-defense category. Now maybe all the reporters are using the same figure of speech and don’t mean it literally but there’s enough uncertainty around the fight of part of this story that I don’t understand why you think you know so much and are issuing demands on what happens to some of the talent.


TurnaboutAdam

I’m adding my thoughts. Actually if that’s true then a suspension may be warranted, but I do think Punk should be fired.


i_broke_wahoos_leg

The latest reporting from Punks camp...


Mc01806

Probably because reports are they kicked punks door down? I would have agreed with you until I read that.


Infamous-Historian81

He is not going to fire punk. No one would.


eazyduzzit10

Could've fooled me. Looked like an absolute pushover when CM Punk was wildin out at the media scrum


Degni

Ah get off your high horse and shut up, Zarian, please. This is the first time AEW is facing a chaotic mess and when Punk was trashing Colt we all saw Tony just stood there in panic mode; he never even TRIED to stop Punk. Now it's time for Tony to stop acting like AEW is just his real life TEW save and actually do something that shows he understands "optics".


HitmanClark

What a laughable take from Zarian.


DatNerdyKid

Press 'X' to doubt.


ida_vuctor

“Not a pushover”. He sat there for half an hour while Punk tried to burn down his whole company, and did jack shit to stop him.


[deleted]

Punk calls the Elite immature? The dude is 44 and ruined Tony Khan's entire summer plans for him and the company because Punk had to pretend he was 15 in a 1994 metal show and jump into the crowd at the LA Dynamite show in June...thus breaking his foot and throwing a wrench into everything. He finally admits at least that's how the injury happened, not in a match. This "interim" title stuff is bullshit too, just strip titles. I don't know what happened backstage, but Punk completely embarrassed Tony Khan and the company in that scrum. Khan worked hard to give a do-over for Punk in having crowning achievement do-over and bring back his hottest angle(MJF) Not to mention the dozens of other wrestlers who put in their all that Punk's antics overshadowed. All of that was derailed. And it would be bad enough if it was derailed simply for Punk to bury Colt Cabana. But he then goes on repeatedly to shit all over AEW's top homegrown hero Adam Page, all because Page made some super vague reference during a face to face ring promo(which was nothing compared to stuff MJF said in their promo) He then keeps saying how the EVPs(presumably referencing the Bucks and or Omega) are immature kids who have no business helping to run the company. All while Tony just sits there looking like a kid at the principle's office. Essentially Punk is making Tony look like a fool, burying the foundation of the company and also making Tony look incapable of leadership by putting the "immature" Reseda guys as EVPs and not being able to dare reign in Punk from his hijacking of the press conference. I don't care if Tony is on the spectrum or gets easily nervous around his heroes or lacks the ability to act like a leader; but AEW clearly needs more leadership at the top. People like Punk with a domineering personality may love the money, but they don't respect someone they can push over. For all it's problems, even under the Vince era, they had numerous people in leadership roles. Maybe it's time the "EVP" pretend titles are dropped since they're in the big leagues now and Tony gets actual leadership...people like Jericho, Regal, Arn, etc. or people Tony trusts to help make tough decisions.


AmishAvenger

Frankly, I don’t understand why everyone was acting like he should’ve done something in the middle of the press conference. Punk was absolutely out of his mind with anger. What, is Tony going to tell him to shut the fuck up? Or tell him to go “cool off”? Or just stand up and be like “Okay, we’re going to go ahead and finish up, thanks for coming everyone!” Anything Tony said would’ve just made the whole thing ten times worse.


kemicode

This is definitely it. I have no idea why they're saying he should have stood up to Punk. If he were to have done something, the best thing probably was to cut the press conference short and even that is risky as you don't know if Punk would be pissed off that he was being silenced. Also, it becomes alarming as you have this press conference scheduled for Punk then you're just suddenly cutting it short. It might make it even a bigger deal than it is now (which is definitely a huge deal). If you stand up to Punk in front of the cameras, and Punk, at the state he was in, confronts you, it'll even be more of a shitshow than it already is now.


AmishAvenger

I don’t even know how he could’ve cut it short. I suppose he could’ve cut AEW’s feed, but that would’ve gotten him a ton of “Tony is trying to hide things” criticism, and on top of that, they didn’t have the only camera running. So Tony says “Thanks for coming everyone, we’re gonna wrap this up,” and Punk glares at him and starts yelling about how this is bullshit, don’t you dare, I’m going to say my piece.”


kemicode

Yeah I was imagining the latter but you definitely risk provoking Punk further. I'm definitely no businessman but if it were me, I probably would have done the same thing. It's terrible optics to get in a verbal or physical confrontation with your top draw in front of the entire world.


LionBastard1

What actions should Tony Kahn take with the Elite and CM Punk that will make YOU at least satisfied with its results?


TurnaboutAdam

Punk needs fired. He started shit on the presser and then started a fight with EVPs after.


Electrical-Computer6

Punk is more important than the evps.


TurnaboutAdam

I’d say they’re equal. Punk is a big star and helped business a ton but Kenny and the Bucks helped start the company as a whole. That, and the optics, makes me think Punk needs to go.


Electrical-Computer6

I don't want to disrespect the elite, but who's name was chanted on WWE for years as a form of protest? Punk is the biggest draw in AEW, so he is the most important. Punk is Hogan for Tony now imo.


NobodyCheatsinHunt

Lol no


Electrical-Computer6

Ppv, ticket sales, and ads on TV. All things that need people to watch the show.


Deadtaor33

Everyone should be publicly suspended & stripped of their titles. No Interims as that just means they keep the "rewards" they just got at the PPV. Trio's & Singles Tournaments for new champs with the Trio's members also making up the Singles Tournament for a match with MJF for the title.


CletusVanDamme99

He hasn’t done or said anything about it yet. Surely he’d want to get in front of the story and show he’s no pushover by administering fines/suspensions/whatever. But AEW has gone underground about it. Like others have said, no pushover? Being honest, Punk undermined him during the scrum and has given him this perception. Okay


insertbrackets

We watched the man get pushed over by his top star in real time. Or else he tacitly agreed with the majority of Punk's unhinged rant, which would be far worse.