“Bootleg WCW”: Tony Khan Accused of Repeating Catastrophic Mistakes Following Sasha Banks, Will Ospreay & Kazuchika Okada Returns

Despite its failure, WCW is a promotion that fans can never forget about. It was considered a worthy competitor of WWE back in its heyday and gave a tough fight to the Stamford-based promotion. However, AEW could be called a more modern-day version of WCW. Despite being overshadowed by WWE’s massive presence, AEW has stayed relevant while amassing considerable followers. However, when a clip of Tony Khan explaining in 2019 on why WCW failed started doing rounds over the internet, fans thought it might be time for him to do some reflection.

Tony Khan reflects on why WCW failed

The President of AEW started by saying that what led to the “demise of WCW” was the fact that it had a large roster. He highlighted the fact that many stars earned lucrative amounts. But it’s not like the promotion was just giving away money. Most of the personnel on the roster were extremely talented and Khan believed to chop down the roster, one would have to make “some really tough decisions.”

He then added that since there were many talented people across the board, the promotion could not pay every talent a huge sum. If a company does so, it won’t have enough revenue to offset what it is paying thus leading to a company’s downfall.

Khan concluded by saying that promotions can’t hire everyone they like or every pro wrestling talent who is good because there are a lot of talented people out there.

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However, these words of Khan backfired on him, especially after the three major signings he has made in the past four months.

Fans want Khan to practice what he preaches

AEW has seen three major signings in the past five months. It was revealed in November 2023 that Will Ospreay has signed a multi-year deal with AEW. In March 2024, two other stars who joined the AEW roster were Kazuchika Okada and Mercedes Mone f.k.a Sasha Banks. This had made fans question Khan’s style of work. Fans started commenting on the clip. One fan believes that AEW is just a “bootleg” version of WCW. Another fan believes that AEW is nothing but a “vanity project.”

One fan jokingly said that Khan is following the same business model.

A couple of fans called out the hypocrisy in his statements stating that he is doing the same thing.

Will AEW turn out exactly like WCW or will Tony Khan will learn from his predecessors? Let us know in the comments below.

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