Tony Khan has high praise for Dustin Rhodes.
During a recent appearance on Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, Khan spoke with Stew Myrick about Dustin Rhodes’ in-ring career winding down and what “The Natural” has meant to the wrestling business.
“Dustin Rhodes is one of the best pro wrestlers of my lifetime. I’ve been looking up to Dustin Rhodes since I first started watching wrestling, he’s one of the first wrestlers I ever saw. And throughout his career, he’s maintained a really high standard of excellence, physical fitness right now is at a premium, I think Dustin, these last ten years, is in much better shape than the decade prior to that, which is unusual,” Khan explained. “His staying power, his longevity, is also really unusual to have somebody doing their best wrestling at this advanced age, it’s unusual.
“I think Dustin could continue on for many, many years and wrestle at a very high standard for years to come,” he added. “I respect the hell out of Dustin Rhodes; I can tell you also respect the hell out of him, Stew. He’s just a tremendous, tremendous wrestler and I think he’s somebody, for AEW since the very beginning, has been very important on-screen and off-screen.”
Tony Khan also spoke about the state of the women’s division, feeling like 2023 will continue to see the build that fans have seen over the past two years.
“I think it’s been building up for a long time,” Khan explained. “There’s been a lot of exciting things. As we ended 2021, there were a lot of exciting things happening in the women’s division and a year later, as we wrapped up 2022, it’s only gotten better. There are a lot of great stars, we’ve added big free agents. You mentioned Saraya, Toni Storm has come in and is one of the most important people in the women’s division. She got injured in her title match with Jamie Hayter so we haven’t seen Toni Storm wrestle since Full Gear, but she’s one of the top stars.
“And then we have our own homegrown stars; the World Champion Jamie Hayter and her best friend, the former World Champion, Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D.. Hikaru Shida, another former World Champion and there are other great stars featured on AEW TV week-to-week, whether it’s a big free agent like Ruby Soho or right now, she’s been teaming with another homegrown talent, Willow Nightingale and they’re taking on Tay Conti and Anna Jay. So a lot of exciting things happening in the women’s division and of course, nobody more dominant than Jade Cargill,” he noted, “the undefeated TBS Champion who has had a hell of a year herself and is approaching one year as the TBS Champion. So, I think there’s a ton to be excited about in the women’s division and I’m looking forward to even more exciting stuff in 2023.”
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