Official Wrestling News Thread


Shane McMahon and Tony Khan met, but no deal was reached.

Fightful and Wrestletalk reported in the Summer of 2024 that Shane McMahon and Tony Khan met in Texas. Since then, we've heard of no follow up or plan to work together.

On February 20, former WWE broadcaster Jonathan Coachman said he had details about the meeting

Andrew Baydala appropriately summarized it on X, saying "Today on the Coach & Bro show- @Thecoachrules stated that Shane McMahon, during the meeting that he asked for with Tony Khan, Shane asked for equity in the company(#AEW), & Shane wanted to come in and run the entire show. Jonathan Coachman then stated Tony Khan "ghosted" McMahon."
We can't verify the request for equity.

However, we've heard a lot more about the meeting between the two sides.
According to a source close to Shane McMahon, Khan did not follow up with Shane. That source also claimed that they couldn't speak on the desire for equity, but that is seemed like Shane McMahon did want to "run things" but didn't have the product knowledge or familiarity with AEW or their business model. That source close to McMahon also said that Shane didn't seem to take it personally that Khan didn't follow up after that, and that it seemed like Khan almost thought Shane was joking when he mentioned the possibility of running everything.

The source indicated that he believed that Shane viewed his insight and abilities to run a show as valuable after witnessing years of fans and people in the industry wanting anyone but Vince in that role.
There was never an expanded plan for Shane McMahon to appear on AEW TV, or be involved in the company. Those that we've spoken to within AEW say that Tony Khan hadn't spoken about it extensively outside of noting that the two sides simply met and aren't working together.

The source close to McMahon that we spoke with claimed that they wouldn't rule out a cameo appearance, but didn't think they would extensively do business together at this stage.​
 
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There has been some frustration within the women's ranks in WWE.

On Fightful Select's discord (access for subscribers here), we answered a question about that frustration, and were asked about it on this week's Hump, which you can check out at this link:

In the podcast, we noted that the frustration was nothing even resembling major low points, with Royal Rumble 2022 as an example. A number of readers asked why specifically Royal Rumble was cited. We did a whole feature on the messes associated: https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/...ble-3-look-behind-nightmare-royal-rumble-2022.

One particular are of note was that widely respected producer TJ Wilson aka Tyson Kidd walked away for a period of time ahead of that Royal Rumble. One of the reasons we were given was that the vision Vince McMahon had was so off the wall, that there was trouble coexisting with it. We're told that this and other things let to Wilson taking time away and WWE calling in Fit Finlay to help produce the match.

Fightful has recently learned at one point early in the planning stages of the 2022 Women's Royal Rumble, that Vince McMahon had pitched to have Ronda Rousey eliminate the entire field of the Royal Rumble in what would be her first match in over two and a half years. We're told that early on, Vince was very steadfast in wanting to do something like this because they had Rousey on a full-time, advanced schedule for all of 2022. Eventually Rousey was brought back, entered at number 28, spent ten minutes in the match, eliminated four people and won.

There was also frustration with Vince McMahon as the vast majority of the cameos had no real plan, and McMahon had instructed them to "get in and get out." Summer Rae, Sarah Logan, Cameron, Kelly Kelly, Melina, Molly Holly and Ivory all spent a minute or less in the match.

At least four cameos WWE had planned for that year rejected WWE's overtures to be in the Royal Rumble. This included Peyton Royce, Billie Kay and Nia Jax. At least one cited TJ Wilson's lack of involvement as a reason.
 
Both Giulia and Steph are the most over women in NXT right now. Both came In hot and were heavily anticipated by the fan base. Ppl were friending for Giulia for a whole year!!!

Sure the way they won their titles were a bit clunky but they were parts of on-going angles. Whether HBK executed those angles in a satisfying way or not is a different discussion. Giulia was feuding with Roxanne this entire time lol

Overall the NXT audience isn’t upset 2 non-English speaking women are the title holders. Declaring this as a problem only after seeing a report that this weeks nxt drew the lowest rating of 2025 is crazy lol
 
Loneshot said:
HBK/HHH are tripping having two non English speaking champions in such a tiny division such as the women. They came in with little momentum and were given the belts with no real angle attached. Perez should still be champion.
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this just a low rating after they had like 3 weeks gettting their highest ratings of the year

it damn sure aint due to Giulia and steph

they both get good reactions too
 
"Fightful Select spoke to sources within WBD, and confirmed that official numbers are kept very close to the vest, even within the company. However, they did confirm that since debuting, AEW has ranked among the top live sports events on Max."

Adding more context to the claim, Max currently offers games and events from nearly every major sports league in the United States - MLB, NBA and NHL, as well as NCAA march madness and college football.
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