Bandido praises Tony Khan following Jake Hager criticism
Bandido doesn’t share any of the same criticisms of Tony Khan that Jake Hager has recently voiced.
Hager — who departed AEW in 2024 — has done multiple interviews of late where he’s taken shots at Khan and criticized him as a boss. In the wake of those comments, Bandido appeared on the Battleground Podcast and was asked to give his own perspective on working for Khan.
“I’m very grateful with him. You know, he always believe in me since day one,” Bandido said. “Tony was very excited with me since PWG shows. And I’m just happy to be here now and that Tony believes in me. I just want to say thank you to Tony, thank you to all the company, and thank you to all my partners here because it’s such a great locker room over here.”
Bandido is a champion in both AEW and ROH, holding the AEW Tag Team titles with Brody King and singles gold as the ROH World Champion. He’s coming off two heavily praised ROH title defenses against Konosuke Takeshita and Hechicero.
In an interview with Vice that was published today, Bandido discussed how excited he is to work with everyone in the AEW tag team division.
“Well, you know, AEW is always with the surprises. So that is the fabulous thing to work here because we don’t know what is next,” he said. “But we are very excited because, like you say, there are so many great names in the tag team division, and I’m very excited to work with everybody. The Young Bucks, FTR, the whole roster, it has been fantastic for me.”
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.