
Some days are relatively quiet on the pro wrestling internet. And other days you have the owner, GM and head of creative of one company trading shots with the broadcast partner of another. Today was one of the latter.
It all started innocently enough. Raj Giri, formerly of Wrestling Inc., which he founded, posted on X (yeah, it’s silly to call it that, it’s Twitter, but hey) after the showdown between Seth Rollins and Jinder Mahal on Raw Monday night.
These guys do have history. Seth Rollins defeated Jinder Mahal in the tournament finals to become the first NXT Champion. #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/FTrI5Cs82O
— Raj Giri (@TheRajGiri) January 9, 2024
USA Network, which of course broadcasts Raw and has some funny social media people, responded thusly:
What was the cagematch rating?
— USA Network (@USANetwork) January 9, 2024
That could honestly have been the end of it, even though, yes, it’s a bit of a jab at Khan, who has brought up Cagematch ratings at times while defending AEW booking. He could have let it go, especially since it was in the replies of Raj Giri.
He chose not to.
A double standard:@730hook 28-1 career record, on winning streak calls out the Champ, a logical challenge sparks online outrage
Jinder has literally lost every single match he’s in for the past year, immediately gets title shot, where is the rage#AEWDynamite TOMORROW on TBS
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) January 9, 2024
You can at least feel where Khan is going here. Hook calling out world champion Samoa Joe did feel like it came out of nowhere, and some people online did complain about it, as they do. But Mahal being thrown into the mix also just kind of appeared out of thin air, plus it happened a week after Jinder was in fact hindered by The Rock. So if you’re going to question one, maybe question both.
But he did not stop there.
A moral victory for USA is one win more than their World Title challenger Jinder Mahal has in the past 364 days… because it’s been literally a full year since he won a match.
You really put AEW in our place getting Jinder Mahal in a big match on your tv show. Do it more often https://t.co/0kpuUsvkm1— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) January 9, 2024
Now this just reads as Mahal catching strays. The man is a former world champion and has had some horrendous bad luck with injuries, so it’s unclear why he needs to be lumped into this so directly.
Should Khan be doing stuff like this? It’s his company, so he can do whatever he pleases. It certainly has people talking, as evidenced by the fact that “Tony Khan” is trending hard on X as this is being typed.
That said, there’s a genuine discussion to be had about whether the “any publicity is good publicity” school of thought applies to AEW at the current time. At the very least, if Khan and USA decide to keep going back and forth on this, it should be entertaining in its own right.
Update: A new front in this social media battle has now opened up as Khan jousts with Eric Bischoff.
— Eric Bischoff (@EBischoff) January 9, 2024
#AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/yq2fdbNi9v
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) January 9, 2024