That Escalated: Tony Khan Goes After Combat Sports Journalist Following SmackDown Appearance

He isn’t a fan. Over the last few years, AEW owner Tony Khan has gone from little more than a fan to one of the more important players in the wrestling world. Khan not only helped found AEW but has also purchased Ring Of Honor. That is the kind of move that almost never takes place in wrestling but Khan made it work. Khan also maintains quite the Twitter presence and it came up again this week.

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This week on SmackDown, combat sports journalist Ariel Helwani made an appearance in the crowd, hyping up Sami Zayn’s speech later in the show. Khan mentioned the appearance on Twitter, calling Helwani “a fraud” and saying he was as legitimate of a reporter as AEW’s Tony Schiavone. Helwani responded later in the night, thanking Khan for watching and saying he “can’t wait for our next chat”. Helwani also told Schiavone not to listen to Khan. This comes after Khan appeared on Helwani’s show last year and refused to answer several of Helwani’s questions.

You're a fraud @arielhelwani. You're as legitimate of a reporter as @tonyschiavone24. #AEWRampage

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) February 18, 2023

Thanks for watching, old friend! Can’t wait for our next chat.

(Also, don’t listen to the snowman, Schiavone. You’re a legend in my books.)

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) February 18, 2023

It was a busy SmackDown. Check out some of what went down:

Opinion: That was quite the reaction from Khan, who has gone on rants like this before. It’s probably not the best look to have the president of a major wrestling promotion going off about someone making an appearance on another wrestling show, no matter what happened between them before. I’m also not sure what was up with the shot at Schiavone, unless this was some weird joke that didn’t quite click.