Tony Khan says Shane McMahon was not interested ‘being an on-screen person’ in AEW
Tony Khan has opened up about his past meeting with Shane McMahon and his thoughts about a potential on-screen role in AEW.
Recently speaking to Jonathan Coachman and Vince Russo, AEW President Shane McMahon opened up in detail about his meeting with Shane McMahon from a few years ago. Reflecting on their conversation, Khan revealed that McMahon had no interest in becoming an on-screen character in AEW.
“I had one really pleasant conversation with Shane [McMahon]. Shane reached out to me and said I’d love to get together. Where are you gonna be? I was going to be in Dallas, we were doing a bunch of shows around Arlington, Texas, and I said to Shane, ‘That’s where I’m gonna be, I can meet you here,’ and we had a nice conversation, and talked for a few hours at the airport.
“I thought it was really strange that a photo came out from it. I thought it was pretty unusual; it could just be someone who worked at the airport, but I had nothing to do with it,” Khan said. “It’s very unusual, I talk to people all the time, from all different media places, Shane’s a very recognisable face in Sports and the world of wrestling, where any wrestling fan would recognise him.
“So that could be what it is, someone recognised we were in a room and wanted to take a photo, I’m in a lot of rooms with a lot of people, I’ve only had that happen one time, so I thought that was unusual. You can see in the photo I’m very surprised, and I noticed he wasn’t as surprised as I was,” he further continued.
Reflecting on their conversation, Khan shared, “I’ve only had the one really nice talk with him. I thought that was interesting. I also thought it was impressive how, in one conversation, somehow it got out that I talked to him, but it was a very pleasant chat, and he seems like a really interesting guy. I don’t think the role of being an on-screen person in a wrestling show seemed like the thing he was interested in, but he had a lot of interesting experiences that are different than mine, but I don’t think he went into it thinking I want to be a character on this guy’s show”
Back in 2024, WrestleTalk and Fightful reported that AEW President Tony Khan had a meeting with Shane McMahon. Shortly after, they also released a photo of their meeting, which led to heavy speculation around McMahon possibly joining AEW.
Shounak Chakrabarti is an experienced sports journalist with a lifelong passion for athletics and storytelling. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Journalism from the University of Leeds and joined F4WOnline in 2025.
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