AEW: Rey Fenix Return & Tony Khan Medical Update Set for 4/27 Collision, Tony Khan on WWE Being “Harvey Weinstein of Pro Wrestling”, More News

Apr 27, 2024

AEW Announced Tony Khan Medical Update & Rey Fenix vs. The Beast Mortos Match for Saturday’s Collision Show

AEW announced one new match for the card of tonight’s AEW Collision show at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida.

This new match announced was a singles match of Rey Fenix vs. The Beast Mortos.

#AEWCollision TONIGHT after @NBAonTNT!@ReyFenixMx vs @Taurusoriginal

Today in Jacksonville, AEW doctors have cleared Rey Fenix! He returns TONIGHT!
Rey Fenix collides vs Beast Mortos
LIVE in @dailysplace tonight!@AEWonTV starts after @Celtics vs @MiamiHEAT TONIGHT on TNT! pic.twitter.com/n9APZ1rWTN
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) April 27, 2024

This will be Fenix’s first appearance and match in AEW since this past October due to him recovering from several injuries.

In regards to non-match announcements, it was also announced that tonight’s show will also feature an update on Tony Khan’s medical condition following The Elite attack on him at this past Wednesday’s Dynamite show.

#AEWCollision TONIGHT right after @NBAonTNT!

We'll have an update on the medical condition of #AEW GM & CEO @TonyKhan, after he was attacked by #theElite on #AEWDynamite.#AEW Collision + #AEWRampage starting immediately following @Celtics vs @MiamiHEAT TONIGHT on TNT! pic.twitter.com/4vAnggF9au
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) April 27, 2024

Current card for April 27th AEW Collision show:

AEW Unified World Trios Championships – Bullet Club Gold (Jay White & The Gunns (Austin & Colten Gunn)) (c) vs. Action Andretti & Top Flight (Darius & Dante Martin)
“Timeless” Toni Storm vs. Anna Jay
The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster) vs. Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zach Gibson)
Rey Fenix vs. The Beast Mortos

Tony Khan on WWE Being “Like The Harvey Weinstein of Pro Wrestling”

The NFL Network held a recent interview with AEW CEO Tony Khan as part of their coverage of this year’s NFL Draft, which Khan and his family are the current owners of NFL team Jacksonville Jaguars.

One of the topics discussed included Khan’s thoughts about AEW’s place in the wrestling marketplace and his claims of WWE being “like the Harvey Weinstein of pro wrestling.”

“AEW, we’ve been doing this for five years, we are the most successful sports start up since the AFL, pre-merger. There has not been a challenger brand that has gained as much market share as AEW in many many years. We are like the Pepsi of pro wrestling. We’re up against an evil juggernaut. WWE is our competitor, that’s who we’re facing. AEW, like the Pepsi of pro wrestling. WWE is like the Harvey Weinstein of pro wrestling. I’m really proud of what we do down here.”

Khan’s comments were in reference to the current sex trafficking allegations lawsuit and other longtime allegations against Vince McMahon and McMahon also currently being represented by the same law firm who handled Weinstein’s rape criminal case.

In regards to Khan’s comments during his interview, Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that those spoken to stated that NFL Network officials and the show hosts were happy with Khan’s appearance despite his controversial line. Sapp reported that NFL Network officials wanted Khan to make an appearance on their Draft show since they knew it would get attention after the photos of him wearing a neck brace went viral on Thursday night.

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

AEW News & Notes

The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported that the NBA recently reached a framework deal with Amazon Prime to broadcast NBA regular season and playoffs games on the service starting with the 2025-2026 season. In regards to Warner Bros Discovery, Marchand reported that while the NBA usually prefers to work with three companies for their media rights deals, they have not ruled out adding a fourth company. Marchand reported that WBD is currently facing tough competition from NBC Universal for the likely last media rights package deal with the NBA. In regards to AEW, it is currently not known how this will effect AEW’s current talks with WBD for a new television contract.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that AEW Vice President Pat Buck was not in attendance backstage at this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. Johnson reported that the reason for Buck’s absence is currently not known.

In response to a recent fan question on Twitter, Max Caster claimed that he was suspended by AEW in relation to his promo he gave at this past Sunday’s AEW Dynasty event that generated mostly negative online criticisms. In a prior tweet, Caster released a new rap video that referenced his AEW status being in doubt leading to the fan’s question in return. Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that his sources stated that Caster has not been suspended by AEW and instead is still scheduled to work at this Saturday’s Collision show in Jacksonville.

As noted before, this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida featured The Elite and Jack Perry attacking AEW CEO Tony Khan to close out the show. This past Thursday’s NFL Draft 2024 Day 1 event in Detroit, Michigan featured Khan being shown on camera wearing a neck brace in the Jacksonville Jaguars draft room selling the effects of the attack. In a recent interview with CBS Sports, newly drafted Jaguars player Brian Thomas Jr. gave his thoughts about Khan’s storyline attack and wished him a speedy recovery.

Friday’s NFL Draft 2024 Day 2 event in Detroit featured AEW CEO Tony Khan being seen again in the Jacksonville Jaguars draft room still wearing his neck brace continuing his selling of the effects of The Elite’s attack during the NFL Network’s coverage of this year’s Draft. Khan was also seen still wearing the neck brace during today’s Day 3 event to the delight of NFL Network’s draft show hosts.

In a recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, Thunder Rosa gave her thoughts about AEW CEO Tony Khan wearing a neck brace at this week’s 2024 NFL Draft event and her belief of it being a perfect example of cross-promotion in wrestling. Rosa stated “For me, it’s like we have received a lot of criticism that we’re not doing a great job on cross0promoting AEW. This is a perfect example on how to cross-promote in different companies, especially knowing that Tony Khan is extremely involved in soccer and in football now. The important thing is like, they’re gonna be like, ‘So what happened?’ They’re gonna research AEW, they’re gonna see the video, so they’re gonna get more hits on the video. From that, they can probably get more fans that are NFL fans to watch AEW. I think that’s the very important part on how this is working. For me, it was really funny. I was not expecting it. I was there when this happened, and I was in shock. I was in the doctor’s room when he was brought into the doctor’s room. Tony Khan collapsed in the doctor’s office after what just happened with The Elite. Also, another thing with the Elite, people were hating them a lot, but I think there’s now a real reason to hate them. The storyline makes sense, and I think a lot of the stuff that was questionable was after that video, where it was like, where’s this gonna go? Well, now I know where it’s gonna go. They’re against the boss.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent episode of the What Happened When with Tony Schiavone podcast, co-host Tony Schiavone gave his thoughts about the Will Ospreay vs. Bryan Danielson match at this past Sunday’s AEW Dynasty event. Schiavone stated “Yeah, didn’t we expect it, though? Didn’t we all know that it was going to be a great match? Listen, to me, Bryan Danielson not only is to me one of the greatest performers ever, but one of my favorite people of all time. You can sit and talk to Bryan Danielson for a long, long time about wrestling, just like you can with Chris Hero. Just sit and talk wrestling with them and just pick their brain and talk about the history of wrestling or moves or the business. So I knew it was going to be a great match. Will Ospreay to me has become like the…I don’t know, I don’t know how to describe him. If I say, ‘Oh, the greatest of all time,’ that would be wrong to say that. But I don’t know anybody that has come in in such a short period of time and captured the excitement of the fans as Will Ospreay has. Not only with what he can do in the ring, but his promos, with the exception of some of the things he said, his promos have been great, wonderful. So I’m just amazed at him. Every time I see Will Ospreay, I say, ‘Slow down, dude. You got a lot of wrestling ahead of you, you don’t want to kill yourself.’ He said. ‘I don’t know how to do it any other way.’ So yeah, the match was wonderful. I wasn’t on the call, but Okada and PAC was wonderful as well.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)