Tony Khan Reveals Shane McMahon Wasn’t Interested in Becoming AEW TV Character

AEW President and CEO Tony Khan recently opened up about his meeting with Shane McMahon a couple of years ago. During the summer of 2024, it was reported by multiple outlets that Khan and Shane met at an airport.

Later, a picture of them engaged in a conversation went viral on social media. There were speculations about Shane O’Mac turning All Elite, but that never really happened.

During a recent appearance on The Coach & Bro Show, the AEW CEO revealed that it was Shane who reached out and that they eventually had a “really pleasant” conversation. Khan also revealed that Shane was not interested in being an on-screen person on AEW television. Below are the highlights:

Tony Khan on His Meeting With Shane McMahon

“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. It’s very unusual. I talk to people all the time from all different media places. Shane’s a very recognizable face in sports and the world of wrestling, where any wrestling fan would recognize him. So that could be what it is; someone recognized 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 [that] I’m very surprised, and I noticed he wasn’t as surprised as I was.”

On Why Their Meeting Didn’t Turn Into Something More Meaningful

“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 a thing he was interested in, but he has 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.”

Please credit The Coach & Bro Show and give an H/T to 411Mania for the transcription if you take quotes from this copy.