Update On Internal WWE Reaction To Rock Praising Tony Khan In PAC Tribute

The Rock had kind words for Tony Khan in his PAC tribute video, something that is reportedly still being discussed in WWE. As noted at the start of the month, the WWE star and TKO board member posted a video where he spoke about PAC following the latter’s passing. In the video, he referred to Tony Khan as his friend and said AEW “is growing into this phenomenal wrestling company.” It had been noted that people in WWE weren’t upset about the video, though they were “surprised” by Rock’s comments about Khan and AEW.

David Meltzer wrote in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter that he still has people in WWE bringing up the comments by the Rock praising Tony Khan to him each week and speculated, “evidently with some, that sting still hasn’t gone away.” He added that everyone “understood” the comments about PAC.

Meltzer noted that people “have their theories” on the matter, but that it seems likely it’s simply a matter of Rock having love for the industry and wanting to send condolences to the people in AEW, where PAC worked, instead of saying nothing because of the perceived “wrestling war” he isn’t part of. Rock commented on the matter in early October, commenting on an Instagram post about the matter:

“you’re right brother, and humanity matters to me. I was born into this business and I’ve seen it all, but when one of our own passes away, I don’t care nor do I see “our competition”, I care about the wrestlers and how it affects them. I’ve been there. To me, humanity matters most.””

In other Rock news, it was noted that while Rock was originally advertised to appear at the WWE tryouts in Hawaii, he did not appear. WWE had stopped advertising him a while before the tryouts and live events that took place on October 16th and 17th.