Tony Khan appeared on “Barstool Rasslin” this week to discuss Samoa Joe, ROH, his relationship with Cody Rhodes, Jade Cargill’s development, and Toni Storm. Tony Khan talked about Samoa Joe and ROH:
It was great. He’s an excellent person. He’s very sensible. He wanted to be there and I asked him to be there. So , in this way, it was simple.
Tony added:
We got everything figured out and I was really excited to bring Samoa Joe both to Ring of Honor and AEW. I felt like that Ring of Honor Pay-Per-View as a transition from an era of 20 great years of Ring of Honor, different ownerships, different bookers, different entities, but frankly, the one thing that was consistent was 20 years of great professional wrestling and great professional wrestlers at Ring of Honor that kept the company strong.
A lot of those great wrestlers have come to AEW. Some of the people who’d even recently been wrestling for Ring of Honor as recently as last year has come to AEW. I thought something great would be to pick up some recent Ring of Honor stories to take everything they’d been doing and really keep the company going and pick up from where they were and not try to start cold because they had some exciting things happening in Ring of Honor.
He was asked, What is the state of his connection with Cody Rhodes? Tony said:
I think it’s just one of those things where, you know, we couldn’t reach an agreement on going forward. I think he has found a situation that’s good for him, and we’re in a great position right now. There’s no ill will either way. We’re still friends. I wish him the best and I think he wished us the best publicly and privately. So it’s all good.
Tony was asked if Tony feels Jade Cargill is coming along:
Jade is a star. I absolutely think she’s far ahead of where anybody expected. I think it’s all down to her.
You know, we’ve tried to put good support and coaching around her and a lot of great people work with her on a regular basis. We have great coaching here. You know, when you have people on the full time staff, you know, Sonjay, Serena, QT, Dustin Rhodes, a lot of really good coaching, but also, Bryan Danielson has put in a lot of time coaching as well. He’s one of the best minds in professional wrestling and he sees the potential in Jade too. I asked him to work with her, and he was eager and excited to do it.
So I think the sky’s the limit for Jade. Her presentation is tremendous. Her instincts are awesome. She’s got all the physical tools and Jade doesn’t just pop a hardcore wrestling fan. Jade pops a casual audience.
Tony’s thoughts on Toni Storm in AEW:
This has brought back her love of wrestling already. The way she reacted when she came through the curtain after the match, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen somebody more relieved to have wrestled a match than Toni Storm.
After taking the 90 days off, she came back in great shape. She looks great. She’s a great person. I love having her in AEW.
