Tony Khan promises a payoff to an unresolved AEW storyline from 2021.
NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal made a few appearances for AEW from December 2020 to March 2021. He entered into a rivalry with Cody Rhodes, and the March 3, 2021, episode of Dynamite featured him teaming up with Jade Cargill to take on Rhodes and Red Velvet in a mixed tag team match.
The final moments of the match saw Cody Rhodes perform a flying crossbody on Shaq, who was standing on the ring apron, sending him crashing into two tables on the outside. Post-match footage showed O’Neal on a stretcher, getting loaded into an ambulance. However, when Tony Shiavone went back to check on him later, the NBA legend had mysteriously disappeared from the ambulance.
AEW President Tony Khan addressed the mystery during his recent appearance on TMZ’s Inside The Ring. He asked fans to stay tuned to AEW programming, promising they will eventually get a payoff to the unresolved storyline “one of these days.”
“Stay tuned. One of these days it’s going to happen. It’s a good reason to stay tuned. It’s been years, but I know eventually that mystery will be solved. Shaq’s whereabouts when they went to check the ambulance. They’ll find him. People ask me every day, all the time I get, ‘Where is Shaq?'” Tony Khan said. [H/T WrestleTalk]
Tony Khan commented on Ronda Rousey’s AEW debut and future
MMA legend and former WWE Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey made her surprise AEW debut at the Revolution PPV this past Sunday. Commenting on her appearance during the post-show media scrum, Tony Khan explained how Rousey’s appearance came up, noting how she and Marina Shafir are good friends in real life. He also noted that the Baddest Woman on the Planet is welcome back in his promotion any time she likes.
“Well, Ronda is a really good friend of Marina Shafir, and Marina brought her in as backup. Everyone was banned from ringside, so that match was a great wrestling match. I thought Toni and Marina Shafir was a great wrestling match. They’re going to have a no-holds-barred fight on Wednesday night, and I’m looking forward to that. We know Wednesday is going to be nuts, we have a huge slate, with now a no-holds-barred match, a coffin match; there’s going to be some crazy stuff and we’re just getting started. I’m going to make sure Wednesday night is a crazy, crazy show and we will head out of California in style, I can assure you of that. I’m very, very excited for Fresno on Wednesday night, and Marina and Ronda are very good friends,” Tony Khan continued.
“When Marina said Ronda was going to be her backup, well, it’s like, ‘OK, everyone is banned from ringside.’ But once the match was over, Ronda did get involved, she made her presence known, and then Marina really took advantage of the situation, landed a sucker punch on Toni Storm while everyone was mesmerized by Ronda,” Tony Khan said.
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