Tony Khan has been criticized for adding more talent to a roster that was already stacked, some of whom were rarely used. As a result of Khan’s acquisition of ROH and the incorporation of its talent into AEW programming, the number of stars’ television time was diminished.
Shane Taylor debuted last week on AEW Rampage in a segment with Keith Lee to set up a tag team match for this Saturday’s ROH Final Battle.
Khan spoke on the Battleground podcast about Taylor’s debut.
“There are fans who have never seen Shane Taylor before, and that’s okay. You get introduced to new faces all the time. When I was a young wrestling fan, that was one of the things I liked about WCW Nitro. I think it would be very ironic now that the same promoter [Eric Bischoff] would tell you, you don’t want to see these faces or introduce new people on TV because they were the ones who did that.
Khan stated that he frequently witnessed individuals he had never seen before wrestling on Nitro. He thought it was cool to do this as a child. He believes it is no longer acceptable because fans know so much more about wrestlers thanks to the internet than they did in 1996.
“People complaining about it ad nauseam on the internet is certainly new. At the end of the day, you want to listen to what the fans are saying. Overall, there has been a positive reception to a lot of international wrestlers coming to AEW.”
You can listen to the complete podcast below:
(H/T to Fightful for the transcription)
