AEW: Tony Khan on Creation of Hologram Character in AEW, Deonna Purrazzo on Britt Baker & MJF Backstage Incident Not Being Reflective of AEW Locker Room, More News

Aug 9, 2024

Tony Khan Comments on His Original Plans for Creation of Hologram Character in AEW

A recent episode of the Q101’s Brian & Kenzie Morning Show featured AEW CEO Tony Khan as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Khan’s thoughts about the creation of the Hologram character in AEW and his original plans for the character’s creation’s in 2020.

“Hologram’s a character I’ve really wanted to see in wrestling for a long time. It was a luchador I had envisioned a long time ago, and honestly, this is the person I wanted to play that role, to be that wrestler. He was a fantastic young talent. I saw him at PWG, and he was 18 years old, and we brought him, when he was a teenager, to Wednesday Night Dynamite, almost five years ago, about four-and-a-half years ago, right after the original Revolution in Chicago. Literally, less than two weeks later, everything was shutting down, it was a crazy time in the world. We had brought him in, I was looking to make him Hologram then, and the world kind of went crazy, and he was locked down in Mexico for a long time. It was a long time before he made it back to America, and then I thought eventually, as things opened up, I really wanted to get Hologram in AEW. It’s been tremendous, it was great having Hologram team with Mistico last Saturday.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Deonna Purrazzo Comments on Britt Baker & MJF Backstage Incident Being “Isolated Incident” & Her Praise of AEW Locker Room

As noted before, Britt Baker was suspended and fined following a backstage incident with MJF at AEW’s Dynamite 250 show on July 17th in Little Rock, Arkansas. Baker’s suspension was lifted this past week and she made a video appearance on this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show.

Stephanie Chase held a recent interview with Deonna Purrazzo. One of the topics discussed included Purrazzo’s thoughts about AEW’s locker room being very similar to TNA’s locker room in terms of being a family and how the recent backstage incident between Baker and MJF was an “isolated incident” and not reflective of AEW’s locker room actually being supportive towards each other.

“Very similar.
I think this was just one instance that sparked a lot of drama, and also kind of took on a life of its own. The rumor mill starts going and things aren’t as they were. People add their two cents and it makes it way bigger than it was. I think this was an isolated incident because everything else that I’ve experienced in this locker room is supportive, encouraging, is a lot of camaraderie. We just recently celebrated people’s birthdays and had birthday cakes and sang. I feel this locker room doesn’t get as much credit as it deserves for that type of camaraderie. I don’t know what it was like before. I can only speak to my experiences, but I feel like it doesn’t get enough credit as it deserves.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

AEW News & Notes

AEW CEO Tony Khan recently revealed on Twitter that legendary wrestling promoter David Crockett was in attendance backstage at this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Nigel McGuinness gave his thoughts praising Michael Cole, AEW, and Tony Schiavone for being valuable help for his wrestling commentary career. McGuinness stated “I learned a lot working under Michael Cole. I developed my style and added to it in AEW, where we have much more free rein. I can really be myself, and to work with Tony Schiavone, who is an institution, is a blessing.“

In a recent interview with the Daily Star, Mariah May gave her thoughts about the differences between AEW’s locker room and other locker rooms she has been in during her wrestling career. May stated “I loved them all. Stardom is my family, AEW is my family. In both of them, I’ve been a foreigner. I know we both speak English, but I’m technically a foreigner, and I feel like they’ve both looked after me so much. I don’t have family or friends and they’re so sweet. They’ve taken me in as their own. Japan is a real sisterhood, they’re a little bit younger so its kind of like school in a way. Whereas I feel AEW is a family, you have your mums and your dads, you’ve got people from so many walks of life and doing so many different things. It’s huge, there’s so many different people there. You have brothers and sisters. A real family. It’s lovely there.“

In a recent interview with the AEW Unrestricted podcast, “Dynamite Kid” Tommy Billington gave his thoughts about how WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart had convinced him to to use his late uncle’s “Dynamite Kid” nickname shortly prior to his debut match in AEW. Billington stated “Actually, I was never going to use the moniker Dynamite Kid. It was actually up until two weeks before AEW before I started using it. I was really funny about using it because I didn’t want people to get the wrong impression that I’m just leeching off that sort of name just to boost [myself]. I always thought, I want to make a name for myself. So for the longest time, I just went by Tom Billington. Two weeks before my AEW debut, I was in Bret’s house just having dinner with him. He told me, ‘Tom, I really think you should use that Dynamite Kid name. It’s your name too because you look so much like him, you talk like him, you even walk like him.’ I reminded him so much of him that it scared him a little bit. So, at first I was kind of like, I get where you’re coming from Bret but I really don’t want to. It took like weeks of him being like, ‘I urge you to use it, it will do you good and people won’t ever doubt you. They’ll see how you work, just like him.’ After a few weeks, I was like you know what, I’ll give it a test run. Two shows of using it, it got really over and people were like, yeah, no doubt, you look so much like him. I get it everyday, you look so much like him it freaks me out, it takes me back to the 1980s with Stampede Wrestling. So when AEW was like [putting me on] Dynamite and Collision, of course I’ll use it. Ever since, it’s been the best decision I’ve ever made to be honest with you.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with TalkSPORT, Bryan Danielson gave his thoughts about Will Ospreay’s work as a performer in wrestling. Danielson stated “You see how good Will Ospreay is. You see it when you watch him. Then you wrestle him and he’s more incredible than you think. When you wrestle him, I’m like, ‘Oh my Gosh, how is this possible?’ I didn’t know he was going to be that good at interviews. He’s really good at every aspect of wrestling. This is one of the hardest things, I think, in wrestling. Interviews that feel authentic. He is a real person who comes out and you can see the emotion on his face. You can see when he’s happy, you can see when he’s down about something. He’s a very expressive person. That’s a skill that has to be cultivated. His ability to learn new skills is unbelievable. I think the world of him.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent separate interview with the Gorilla Position podcast, Bryan Danielson also gave his thoughts about being open to the idea of Shane McMahon joining AEW. Danielson stated “I mean, I’m open to working with anybody. I don’t have beef with anybody. So, yeah, 100 percent.” Danielson also gave his thoughts about McMahon’s recent meeting with Tony Khan. Danielson stated “It was interesting because Tony [Khan] mentioned to me after the photo had come out, he said, ‘Oh yeah, I didn’t want to tell you this before but I met with Shane McMahon.’ I didn’t say this but I was like, ‘Yeah, I know. The picture was everywhere.’ [laughs]. Although, to be fair, I’m not aware of a lot of things because I don’t go on Twitter and I don’t go on social media and all that kind of stuff.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)