Nick Khan told Busted Open host WWE doesn’t want ‘shill radio’
WWE rolled out the red carpet for the hosts of Busted Open Radio during SummerSlam weekend.
A new partnership between WWE and SiriusXM began last week with SiriusXM’s pro wrestling channel rebranding to WWE Radio. The channel is anchored by Busted Open, and three of the show’s hosts — Dave LaGreca, Bully Ray & Tommy Dreamer — were shown in the front row during SummerSlam this past weekend. LaGreca and Bully Ray recapped their experience on Monday morning’s episode of the show, praising WWE for how well they were treated. Though the partnership obviously contributed to that, Bully Ray said WWE went out of their way to give them a great experience.
“Thank you to WWE for the great, great treatment,” the WWE Hall of Famer said. “Shout out to Nick Khan, who got up out of his front-row seat to walk halfway around the stadium to come up to us, say hello, tell us how great he thought the partnership was going so far, asked us if we need anything, if we were comfortable. Thank you, Nick Khan, for being a complete gentleman.”
LaGreca, the main host of Busted Open, said there were times when he’d promote other companies and they’d thank him by putting him in “section 313, row 24.” No other wrestling promotion has ever given him the type of treatment that WWE did here.
“You turned around and you looked at me and you said, ‘You’re right, this is the way it’s supposed to be.’ Because I hated the fact that you were not treated as well as you should have been treated in the past by other companies,” Bully Ray said to LaGreca. “Especially with the way you opened your arms to them and gave them platforms.”
At SummerSlam, WWE President Nick Khan pointed to LaGreca specifically and said he doesn’t want LaGreca’s coverage to change.
“He said to all of us, he said how much he enjoys it, how much he loves it, and he doesn’t want things to change,” LaGreca said. “And then he pointed — he put his finger on my chest and pointed at me and said, ‘You, especially you, I don’t want you to change at all.’ And then he used an example of somebody that he really enjoyed listening to that gave a little bit of shill radio and he just stopped listening because it’s not a product that you want to listen to. The reason that they wanted to partner with us, and the reason that they wanted to be a part of our brand, is that they love what we do.”
Busted Open says style won’t change —
Since the WWE Radio switch was announced, Busted Open has been under fire from some fans online over being part of a deal that now has the show ignoring WWE’s biggest competition, AEW. LaGreca promised that Busted Open’s tone will not change and that they are still going to provide “critical radio” of WWE. Bully Ray said that, when a match has things that aren’t right, he’s going to point that out just like he always would.
The WWE Radio deal now has SiriusXM producing its own live commentary for WWE PLEs done by Vic Joseph & Booker T. WWE Radio is also simulcasting audio of Raw, SmackDown, and NXT and airing the WWE podcast slate in addition to the station’s regular programming.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.