All Elite Wrestling hasn’t had a good month of October. Last week, its flagship show ‘Dynamite,’ drew its lowest viewership in five months. A week later, they posted low viewership again after going head-to-head with ‘WWE NXT,’ getting beat handily by the competition. But the special Tuesday Dynamite episode drew a lot of attention for reasons that had nothing to do with pro wrestling.
During the show, AEW wrestler Juice Robinson, who’s feuding with Maxwell Jacob Friedman, better known as MJF, the AEW World Champion, flashed a roll of quarters. The roll read, in black ink, “FRIEDMAN,” in reference to the wrestler he’s feuding with. While Robinson had been using the roll of quarters as part of his character and part of a bit, doing this at this time drew a lot of pushback. And for mighty good reason. The Hamas terrorist attack launched in Israel has caused a great deal of pain and strife around the world. It’s an incredibly sensitive subject, and being antagonistic towards MJF, who is Jewish, in this sort of way, felt like something that should have never gotten off the cutting room floor.
But in spite of the controversy, Tony Khan is yet to make a public statement even though he’s commented on just about everything else around the wrestling world.
In case you haven’t heard, Khan has spent a great deal of time online this week. AEW’s founder has always spent a great deal of time online, but this week brought something else out of him. He posted in the direction of both Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque and Shawn Michaels, responded to fans, and even appeared to take a shot at former WWE head Vince McMahon.
Yes. Vince has allegedly used his power and influence to shoot a lot of shots. https://t.co/8E9vHeS3rF
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) October 12, 2023
However, if you scroll through the AEW founder’s feed, you’ll see no mention of the controversial angle involving Robinson and MJF. There’s no apology or even an acknowledgment. Thus far, the only person to speak publicly about the incident was MJF, who offered a passionate defense.
But it turns out that Khan is fully aware of what’s going on despite the lack of public postings.
Earlier Thursday, Travis Akers, a Duval County school board candidate residing in Jacksonville, Florida, the home of AEW, made a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Akers brought attention to the antisemitic angle by quote-tweeting a post made by TMZ on Wednesday night. Akers claimed that he watched the show, and then after the angle happened, he changed the channel.
“It was tasteless and a horrible decision by Tony Khan to pursue an angle woven with anti-Semitism,” Akers posted.
https://twitter.com/travisakers/status/1712264371986927854
On Thursday afternoon, Akers made a since-deleted post, revealing that Khan sent him Twitter DMs about his criticism of the controversial angle.
UPDATE: Akers again shared Khan’s DMs on Friday morning in a new public post.
This is how Tony Khan responded to my critique of using an anti-Semitic storyline. Instead of addressing a legitimate concern, he says “it’s not doing much good.”
Thousands of fans have expressed disappointment about the poorly-timed angle. This is not how you respond to them. pic.twitter.com/gJW7kL3WMv
— Travis Akers (@travisakers) October 13, 2023
Awful Announcing confirmed with Akers that the conversation took place.
“Yes, Tony reached out via DM,” Akers told AA. “However, we are having an on-going conversation now regarding the angle and my concerns about the anti-Semitic content.”
Akers also told AA that he’s an AEW fan who loves the weekly programming. “But I believe the angle was poorly timed and a misjudged decision,” he said.
Akers’ opinion lined up with many who criticized the insensitive angle at the time. It wouldn’t be acceptable at any point, but within the confines of the world right now today, it’s tasteless. AEW’s had quality control issues in the past, but this took the company’s issues to a new level.
The larger world around us sometimes comes calling. When the phone rings, you need to pick it up. While MJF delivered his passionate defense, Khan has been notably conspicuous by his silence. Everything in AEW goes through him, or at least should. So why has the AEW founder spent more time this week talking about a ratings streak for John Cena and The Undertaker than a real controversy that he is ultimately responsible for? Why is he leaving MJF alone to publicly defend what the company puts on television while he debates it through Twitter DMs?
A few weeks ago at ‘AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam,’ an antisemitic sign was made in MJF’s direction. If this goes by without anything being addressed, and the incident went mainstream, then what does that say? You can’t let the potential blow-up of these situations exacerbate out of control. Not with sensitive subjects like these. They have the potential, at any moment, to go haywire. That’s why, generally speaking, these subjects aren’t covered at length. And especially not in the world of professional wrestling, which as a whole has been a tactless industry over the years.
Tony Khan didn’t address the elephant in the room this week publicly and that ultimately sells his wrestlers and his company short. It’s been reported that others in AEW want Khan to put the phone down and turn away from social media, which might be the best result for everyone.
