Tony Khan Addresses Dealing With Feedback & Criticism

– During a recent interview with Jon Alba for Sports Illustrated, AEW President and CEO Tony Khan discussed taking feedback and criticism into account. Below are some highlights:

Tony Khan on listening to feedback: “I do like to listen to feedback from lots of people across pro wrestling, and especially if it’s constructive, it can be really helpful. I think there’s a lot of times where you hear somebody say something, and they say, ‘oh, why didn’t they do it this way? Or ‘instead of going from point A to point B and then to point C, you know, maybe off in between point and point B, they could have added this,’ and so maybe there’s a good idea there they can use in the future.”

On why he likes hearing feedback: “I really do love hearing feedback from all kinds of people, from people in wrestling, wrestlers, people who work in wrestling in the production side or both, and fans. Fans that I’ve never been backstage at a show in their lives, but just love wrestling and watch it a lot, and they have great ideas…”

On hearing ideas from fans: “I had never been backstage at a wrestling show until I was in my 30s. And I just grew up watching it and loving it and following it and, you know, trading tapes and talking about it. So there’s a lot of different places and a lot of different ways that you can get an idea about wrestling or that you can contribute. I just think it’s really neat that there’s people from literally all over the world in hundreds of countries that follow the same sport and can share ideas and talk with each other. It’s really cool.”