Tony Schiavone Says Tony Khan Never Intends To Be On ‘Dynamite’, Explains Why ‘Elevation’ Appearance Was Needed

Tony Schiavone has Tony Khan’s back and says the AEW President was the right man for a specific job on Monday’s AEW Dark: Elevation premiere.

Schiavone posted the following, defending Tony Khan‘s appearance on the AEW Dark: Elevation premiere on Monday night. Fans that were complaining about Khan’s on-air appearance were criticizing it due to the belief that Khan would never appear as a character on AEW programming.

I know @TonyKhan very well. He never wants to take up TV time with an appearance, but needed to deliver a message tonight on #Elevation to an out-of-control Kenny Omega. He’s never done that on Dynamite and never intends to, but tonight he was the only one that could do it. @AEW

Khan appeared on the Elevation premiere and cut a promo on All Elite Wrestling Champion Kenny Omega, claiming that Omega forced his hand after he backed out of a gentlemen’s agreement with Sydal.

Related: Tony Khan Appears On AEW Dark: Elevation, Forces Kenny Omega To Face Matt Sydal Next Week

Khan has been appearing weekly on IMPACT Wrestling via “paid advertisements” but he previously said he didn’t want to be a regular on-screen character on All Elite Wrestling. He previously addressed his status as an on-air character before, telling Renee Paquette that he wasn’t going to be the “wrestling GM” in the traditional sense and explained that he has “come as close to doing it as I will.” He noted that he made a big exception in coming out to the ring for the Brodie Lee tribute show, adding that it was the right thing to do to express how much Brodie meant to the company.

“I wanted to pay the highest respect to him that I could to him and his family and be there for them. But other than that, I’ve never come out and done that in that role. Occasionally, because of the story with IMPACT, a couple of times, it makes sense… for example, [the Young Bucks] were waiting to be introduced by Don Callis, but he brought out the Good Brothers instead, and Matt and Nick were standing there, right there by the curtain in Gorilla with me,” Khan explained, “and I’m not going to be thrilled about it either. They should have expected this from Kenny by now, but I don’t want to [be a regular character]. We have a limited amount of TV time and we have a great roster and there’s a lot of other people that need to be featured. Quite frankly, the character of the general manager doesn’t need to be featured on TV a lot.”

“I’m the General Manager of a Premier League team, you don’t see me [out there] that much. That’s not the job of the General Manager, it’s not to be on TV a lot. There’s a time and a place, if there’s a statement that needs to be made, you do it, but in the case of AEW, it’s announcing matches. With Fulham, it could be announcing players, someone could be coming in on loan,” Khan said, “but for me, the role of the general manager [in wrestling], there’s not really a need for that person to be on TV consistently. I think you just have to explain that [he’s making matches, but not show him]. It’s a device that you need. I think of myself as a device on the show instead of a character, if that makes sense.”

If you use any portion of this transcript, credit WrestleZone.com and link back to this post.

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