In mid-2024, a photo of Tony Khan and Shane McMahon meeting at an airport office in Arlington, Texas, went viral. And it became a major topic of discussion among both fans and the media, as many began speculating about a possible AEW-WWE crossover. Now, Khan has finally explained what really happened.
The meeting took place on July 29, 2024, and it was actually McMahon who reached out first. Khan said McMahon suggested a meeting when he arrived in Dallas. They ended up talking for a few hours in a private airport office. The AEW President described the meeting as friendly and interesting.
Tony Khan reacts to the Shane McMahon meeting photo
What surprised Khan the most was not the meeting but the photo getting leaked online. While speaking on The Coach and Bro Show, he said he had no idea how the picture came out.
“I had one really pleasant conversation with Shane. Shane reached out to me and said, ‘I’d love to get together and where are you gonna be?’ And I was going to be in Dallas, we were doing a bunch of shows around Arlington, Texas, and I said to Shane like, ‘That’s where I’m gonna be, I can meet you here,’ and we had a nice conversation. We talked for a few hours in the airport,” Tony Khan said.
Khan guessed that someone at the airport or a random person might have taken the photo after recognizing them. He also felt strange because he underwent many meetings before, but this was the only time something like this got leaked.
“I thought it was really strange that a photo came out from it. I thought it was pretty unusual. It could just be somebody who worked at the airport, but I know I had nothing to do with it. It’s very unusual. I talk to people all the time, from all different media places. Now Shane’s a very recognizable face in sports and especially in the world of wrestling, where almost any wrestling fan would recognize him,” Khan added.
He also mentioned that he looked surprised in the photo, while McMahon didn’t seem as shocked.
“So that could be what it is. Somebody recognized that we were in a room and wanted to take a photo. I’ve been in a lot of rooms with a lot of people. I’ve only had that happen to me one time, so I thought that was pretty unusual that the photo… You can see in the photo I’m very surprised when the person walked into the room, and I noticed he wasn’t as surprised in the photo as I was,” Khan said.
As for the meeting itself, nothing major came out of it. Khan also hinted that their ideas didn’t match. Many fans thought Shane McMahon might appear on AEW TV, but Khan said that didn’t seem to be McMahon’s plan. Instead, he was more interested in behind-the-scenes roles.
“I’ve only had the one really nice talk with him. I thought that was interesting. I also thought it was quite impressive that in one conversation, it somehow got out that I talked to him. It was a very pleasant chat and he seemed like a really interesting guy. I don’t think the role of being like an on-screen person in a wrestling show seemed like the thing he was particularly interested in, but he had a lot of interesting things and experiences that are totally different than mine. But I don’t particularly think he went into it thinking, ‘I want to be a character on this guy’s show,’” Khan said.
Some reports later suggested Shane even wanted a major leadership position. But that didn’t fit with AEW’s setup.
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