Ariel Helwani On Tony Khan’s Tweet About His Smackdown Appearance, His Reply To Khan

Ariel Helwani became the target of Tony Khan after he appeared on last week’s Smackdown, and he addressed the situation today. As previously noted, Khan took to Twitter to call Helwani a “fraud” for appearing on Smackdown and doing the voiceover for the Elimination Chamber video package that aired on Friday’s show, which prompted Helwani to respond after the show.

Helwani addressed the whole situation on the latest episode of The MMA Hour, and you can see highlights below (per Fightful):

On his Smackdown appearance and Tony Khan’s reaction: “I’m not a wrestling journalist. I’ve never called myself a wrestling journalist. I don’t report on wrestling like others do. I do interview wrestlers, I enjoy it tremendously, I try to think and act like a journalist when I do these interviews, but I am not a wrestling journalist. I, obviously, have relationships with people there because Nick Khan, the CEO, was my agent. I can’t hide from that. I wasn’t sure what direction I should go, what should I do. I came to the conclusion that, in life, especially post-ESPN, I just want to have fun. I want to do fun things. I came to the conclusion, around December, if an opportunity comes up again, I’m going to take it. It’s always been a bucket list thing for me. I made a promise to myself, without seeking it, if this opportunity came up again, I would seriously consider it because life is too short, I want to have fun. I’m not a wrestling journalist. I think people are confusing me for my role in MMA, it’s not the same. All things aren’t equal.”

On his voiceover for the Elimination Chamber video package: “I said yes, and I said, ‘this time, I am going to get paid.’ The reason I didn’t say it beforehand, I didn’t want to ruin the surprise. I wanted it to be organic and fun. As of right now, I haven’t been paid, but you get the point, I agreed to it. Unless they decide to not pay me because I sucked, which is fine. [jokingly] I might have been fired.”

On his reaction to Tony Khan’s tweet: “I swear to God, I looked at it three times and I thought it was fake. Anyone can have a blue check. This guy doesn’t follow me, he’s never tweeted me, there is no way he actually tweeted this. Number one, proving that he was watching, which is bizarre. Why would you do that? Why would you put the competition over and show that you’re watching some random SmackDown and a random moment in the telecast…

“The real thing he should have done is not say anything because why put over the competitions broadcast? You talk about an own goal, I know Fulham is having a better season, they certainly haven’t had a great run with the Khans involved, but this was an all-time great own goals. I couldn’t believe it. I had to check multiple times if it was really him.”

On his interview with Tony Khan in October: “He is still upset, clearly, over the fact that he gave me one of the all-time worst interviews, and ignoring the fact that I have continuously praised the product ever since they launched. It was a bad interview, objectively, a bad interview. What is amazing about that interview is, everyone loves to talk about, ‘he couldn’t talk about this, legal this,’ where is the legal? Where is the proof? What legal are you talking about? What is this investigation that you guys keep talking about? I had asked Tony multiple times to come on the show. I stopped asking because I was told that he wasn’t sure, I’m Nick Khan’s guy, I work for BT, which is stupid because that’s just the broadcast partner. That’s like saying Bellator guys shouldn’t speak to Marc Raimondi because he works for ESPN and UFC is on ESPN.

“They reached out to me several months later and said, ‘do you want to have Tony on?’ Never said, ‘Don’t ask about this, don’t ask about that.’ You don’t think I’m not going to ask about these things? Anyone worth their salt is going to ask about these things. There is a million different ways you could have answered those questions. At the time, I had no relationship with anyone in terms of business. This was early October. To now, pin those questions on me appearing on SmackDown, is a bullshit move, because one has nothing to do with the other. He’s just mad that he came off looking like a guy that didn’t know how to handle these situation and is only comfortable promoting and talking on about a product, but that’s not what the public wants to hear. Now, he wants to say, ‘Ah ha, look, this is why he asked me these questions.’ It’s all silly bullshit. Why do you care? I said it was a bad interview, I praised your product, why are you so quick to run to your phone and tweet this in my moment.”

On his reply to Khan: “I thought I wasn’t going to reply, but then I was like, ‘Fuck it, Heelwani, 10-7, all day, everyday.’ I was like, ‘I’m not going to let this slide. You’re not going to call me a fraud and get away with it.'”

On his status with WWE: “I’m not a WWE employee. If they come back and we talk about something else, would I be open to it if it makes sense, I don’t think me being a character is the right move, I don’t know. I would consider anything. Tony, I am done. If you want to talk about me helping out the product, I’ll show up on Dynamite for the right price. You want me to be bought and paid for, let’s put out the ‘Fraud’ t-shirts right now, I’ll lean all the way in.”