Tony Khan explains why he felt like he should address the crowd after CM Punk‘s termination.
AEW terminated CM Punk’s contract on September 2, just a few hours ahead of the live taping of AEW Collision. The move was controversial, to say the least, and Collision emanated from Punk’s hometown of Chicago that day. Given the potentially hostile crowd, Tony Khan’s decision to address the fans surprised many fans as well.
Speaking with Jason Guerrasio of Insider (No relation to PWInsider), Tony Khan was asked why he chose to address the crowd at the top of the ramp, rather than in the ring. Khan stated that he wanted to see everyone, and he felt that he owed everyone some sort of explanation.
“You can’t see everybody’s face from the center of the ring,” Tony Khan said. “You have to choose one side of the crowd to face when you’re in the ring. And I wanted to be able to see everybody. I felt like, I’m not a wrestler and I don’t need to be in the ring, and for this moment, I thought I would just sit down and talk to everybody.
“That’s why I brought out a chair. And when I was done and walked backstage, the first person I saw was Ricky Steamboat and he said, “That was great, you turned the crowd. You turned them around. That’s so hard to do, and you did it.” I felt I at least owed that much to the wrestlers and the fans, to go out there and talk to everybody.”
Tony Khan also made it clear that it meant a lot to him to speak to the Chicago crowd. He noted that the city is home to his family.
