Tony Khan Believes AEW Has Never Had A Better Guest Than Shaquille O’Neal

It is well known that NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal is a huge fan of pro wrestling. He’s made past appearances in WWE and also AEW. He finally got in the ring for AEW earlier last year.

Shaquille O’Neal made his in-ring debut in AEW on the March 3rd episode of Dynamite. He partnered up with Jade Cargill and faced off against Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet in a match that the NBA Hall of Famer and his partner won.

O’Neal certainly looked impressive in the match as he clearly trained for it. It also featured a spot where he went through two tables thanks to a crossbody from Cody Rhodes.

AEW also had other celebrity guests on their shows including boxing legend Mike Tyson. While speaking with Josh Martinez of Z100 New York, Tony Khan talked about various celebrities appearing on AEW television. Khan stated that he believes the company has never had a better guest than Shaquille O’Neal.

“So we’ve had big names from MMA, big names from sports like Mike Tyson and Shaquille O’Neal. You know, we’ve probably never had a better guest in AEW than Shaq. He was so great on every level with us and you know, not just a hard worker and put in a great wrestling match, but also backstage the most humble person we’ve ever had in the history of the company in terms of coming in.

He went around and thanked every wrestler and it was unbelievable to all these pro wrestlers to have Shaq coming up to them and saying nice things, but also saying ‘ you know, I did my best out there. I hope I didn’t embarrass anybody. I just want to make pro wrestling look good. Because I like wrestling.’

To hear that from Shaq of all people, one of the biggest sports stars of all time, one of the greatest athletes ever, that was so cool. And we’ve had great entertainers come into AEW including Snoop Dogg and many others. So I always love having crossover opportunities to get big stars in.”

Shaquille O’Neal previously stated that he would love to compete in another match in the future. We will have to see who O’Neal will compete against when he is back.

h/t to Wrestling Inc for the quotes