Ariel Helwani speaks out about AEW President Tony Khan‘s tweet.
Helwani appeared on the February 17 episode of WWE SmackDown, and Khan tweeted about it, saying, “You’re a fraud @arielhelwani. You’re as legitimate of a reporter as @tonyschiavone24.” In response, Helwani wrote, “Thanks for watching, old friend! Can’t wait for our next chat. (Also, don’t listen to the snowman, Schiavone. You’re a legend in my books.)”
Speaking on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Helwani discussed the exchange, as he recalled checking his phone and thinking Khan’s tweet was strange.
“I swear to God, I looked at it three times and I thought it was fake,” he said. “Anyone can have a blue check. This guy doesn’t follow me, he’s never tweeted me, there is no way he actually tweeted this. Number one, proving that he was watching, which is bizarre. Why would you do that? Why would you put the competition over and show that you’re watching some random SmackDown and a random moment in the telecast.”
Helwani initially thought Khan was putting down AEW broadcaster Tony Schiavone by comparing him to Ariel, but one of the co-hosts noted that Khan might gave been drawing a comparison between their usages as on-screen interviewers. Helwani then looked back on his controversial interview with Khan in October and shared his belief that the AEW president was upset about Ariel’s follow-up comments.
“He is still upset, clearly, over the fact that he gave me one of the all-time worst interviews, and ignoring the fact that I have continuously praised the product ever since they launched,” Helwani said. “It was a bad interview, objectively, a bad interview. What is amazing about that interview is, everyone loves to talk about, ‘he couldn’t talk about this, legal this,’ where is the legal? Where is the proof? What legal are you talking about? What is this investigation that you guys keep talking about? I had asked Tony multiple times to come on the show. I stopped asking because I was told that he wasn’t sure, I’m Nick Khan’s guy, I work for BT, which is stupid because that’s just the broadcast partner. That’s like saying Bellator guys shouldn’t speak to Marc Raimondi because he works for ESPN and UFC is on ESPN. They reached out to me several months later and said, ‘do you want to have Tony on?’ Never said, ‘Don’t ask about this, don’t ask about that.’ You don’t think I’m not going to ask about these things? Anyone worth their salt is going to ask about these things. There is a million different ways you could have answered those questions. At the time, I had no relationship with anyone in terms of business. This was early October. To now, pin those questions on me appearing on SmackDown, is a bulls— move, because one has nothing to do with the other. He’s just mad that he came off looking like a guy that didn’t know how to handle these situation and is only comfortable promoting and talking on about a product, but that’s not what the public wants to hear. Now, he wants to say, ‘Ah ha, look, this is why he asked me these questions.’ It’s all silly bulls—. Why do you care? I said it was a bad interview, I praised your product, why are you so quick to run to your phone and tweet this in my moment.”
Helwani then detail how the news of Khan’s tweet spread backstage. He also stated that he was thinking about taking a shot at Khan by referencing UFC President Dana White.
“The amazing thing was is how the whole thing spread backstage,” he said. “‘Did you see the tweet? Did you see the tweet?’ I don’t even know a lot of these people. ‘It’s amazing. How could he? Was that really him?’ He’s no different than Dana (White). What I thought about tweeting back to him was, ‘Dana is not going to shag you, mate.’ I know he’s just trying to curry favor with his idol Dana White. I was thinking of that one, but I thought it might be a little too much of a deep cut for the wrestling audience.”
Helwani went on to make it clear that he wasn’t going to let Khan ruin his name and his reputation. He also stated that some parts of their interview didn’t air, and the whole experience was bizarre.
“I was not going to let this guy, who has built an amazing thing, all credit to him,” Helwani said. “This kid, who, if it wasn’t for his old man…let me tell you something, my dad gave me a lot, but as far as MMA journalism and everything I’ve built, that was all on me. I’m very proud of what I’ve built. I wasn’t going to let this guy fucking soil my name, drag it through the mud, ruin my night. I know he’s trying to get himself over on me because lord knows he needs it, I wasn’t going to let that happen. Absolutely not. I can tell you a lot of other stuff about that interview that we didn’t show about how weird and bizarre that whole thing was, but I’m not going to do that.”
On the show, Helwani emphasized that he is not a wrestling journalist, and he shouldn’t be compared to Dave Meltzer. He then brought up the way Michael Cole referenced Khan when he introduced Helwani at WWE Elimination Chamber.
“Michael Cole, legend that he is, says to me before the broadcast, ‘Wait until you hear how I introduce you,” he said. “I go to the back and my phone explodes because of what Michael Cole said. Everyone is going nuts over this, I’m getting high fives in the back. I’m like, ‘I didn’t do anything.'” (H/T Jeremy Lambert of Fightful for the transcription)
Helwani noted that he is not an employee of WWE, though he would be open to returning and appearing on-screen if it made sense. He then stated that he would consider anything, including appearing on AEW Dynamite.
“If you want to talk about me maybe helping out the product, I’ll show up on Dynamite for the right price, Tony. I’ll shoot over there too, if you want. “Listen, you want me to be bought and paid for? Let’s start printing out the “fraud” t-shirts right now. I’ll f—- lean all the way in. I don’t give a f—-.”
Additionally, Helwani made it clear that he was thankful for his experience with WWE in Montreal.
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