AEW president Tony Khan has escalated his feud with combat sports journalist Ariel Helwani.
Helwani, a Montreal native, appeared in a segment on Smackdown in which he was interviewed about fellow Montrealer Sami Zayn and the Elimination Chamber show taking place at the Bell Centre tomorrow night.
Tony Khan tweeted this after the segment aired:
You're a fraud @arielhelwani. You're as legitimate of a reporter as @tonyschiavone24. #AEWRampage
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) February 18, 2023
Helwani fired back saying:
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
Khan continued his rant:
Good luck with the unbiased journalism.
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) February 18, 2023
Helwani, who has been a sports reporter for 20 years, criticized Khan after interviewing him last year. On The MMA Hour, Helwani complained that all Khan did was hype AEW and never gave any meaningful answers to important questions in their chat. He called the interview “frustrating” and accused Khan of dodging questions.
“He didn’t want to answer anything,” said Helwani at the time.
“The enjoyment of getting to talk to the guy who founded this great property that has done a lot of great things in three years fizzled out rather quickly when I realized the only answers he’s gonna give me are these long drawn-out answers promoting all this stuff and going on these tangents about Chris Jericho and this and that,” he continued.
Helwani then went on to criticize the current AEW product.
“If you are saying right now with a straight face that the AEW product is better than the WWE product, you’re just a liar. You’re just an absolute liar. There’s no if, ands, or buts. The WWE product is infinitely better, infinitely more interesting and there’s a freakin’ brawl happening backstage each and every week it seems. Meanwhile it’s all kumbaya on the [WWE] side of things. Like, if you’re gonna be a superfan be a superfan but also tell it like it is. Six months ago wasn’t the case…but right this second, if you’re gonna sit here and say that it’s a better product, you’re an absolute liar,” he said.
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