Tony Khan: Mike Tyson Always Wanted To Come Back To AEW, Shaq Disappeared Because He’ll Return Someday

All Elite Wrestling continues to feature iconic stars who have made their names outside of wrestling. Mike Tyson will return to AEW Dynamite this Wednesday, just a few weeks after Shaq made his in-ring debut on the show. In an interview ahead of Wednesday night’s buzzworthy episode, AEW President Tony Khan discussed Tyson’s appearance with Mike Johnson of PWInsider. He explained that he and Tyson have become good friends, so they’ve stayed in touch since the boxing legend’s last appearance. (H/T Billy Krotchsen)

“I was really excited to get Mike back at Dynamite because our schedules matched up for us to do something now and to do something this week,” said Khan. “This all came together because Mike and I are friends and we stayed in touch over the past year – Mike was here I think over 10 months ago, and a lot’s happened in the world since then. Mike went out and returned to the ring and had a great return match against Roy Jones and that was great. We talked as he was training for the fight and we talked right after the fight, and Mike has always said that he’d love to be at AEW.

“He enjoyed Double or Nothing last year, he had a great time at Dynamite and he wanted to come back. It was one of those things, we kept saying, “Let’s do it, let’s do it,” and we were talking on the phone last week and I said, ‘This would be a great time, what do you got next week?’ and he said, ‘I’m free if you want me to come,’ and I said, ‘I’d love for you to come.’ So it worked out perfect and I’m just glad he had the date open and we stayed in touch this whole time.”

Khan also looked back on the end of Shaq’s latest appearance on AEW Dynamite. After the basketball icon and Jade Cargill won their match against Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet, Shaq was seemingly taken out of the arena in an ambulance. But somehow, he disappeared from the vehicle, and he hasn’t been seen ever since. Khan explained that Shaq’s departure was handled this way because the four-time NBA Champion wanted to set up his eventual return to the company.

“Before he went out, he’s like, ‘Great, I’d like to come back,'” said Khan. “And I was like, ‘I would kill to have you back, that is amazing. What do you want to do?’ He’s like, ‘Well, this ambulance, just when you load it up, I’ll be gone. Then nobody knows where I went and I’ll come back.’

“…I was like, “That is going to be exactly what we’re going to do for you,’ so that was it. I was in his trailer and he told me he’s fine going into the ambulance, he was going to do everything…he had worked so hard on all this, but then when it came time to show the ambulance, when they go and look inside it, ‘I don’t want to be there, I want to be gone. I left the ambulance, nobody knows where I am, I’m going to leave and some day I’ll come back,’ and pun intended, that was a slam dunk idea, a brilliant idea and people are still talking about it, which proves it was a great idea.”

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