Tony Khan Was Inspired By HBO’s ‘Entourage’ For Ariya Daivari’s AEW Character

Ariya Daivari used to work for WWE before he evetually found himself as a producer in AEW. He signed a full-time deal with the company and works on and off-screen. Ari Daivari recently confirmed that the HBO series Entourage’s legacy inspired Tony Khan for his AEW gimmick.

The founder of Trustbusters recently appeared for an interview on AEW Unrestricted. Daivari anticipated a name change in WWE, because he saw people like Pete Dunne and WALTER undergo drastic name changes. However, no change was made until he signed with AEW.

My real name is Ariya Daivari, and it’s kinda cool that I got to wrestle in WWE under my real name and they wanted to capitalize on any buzz anyone had from the Cruiserweight Classic, so they said, ‘everybody gets to keep their names,’ which was pretty unprecedented because while I was there guys are getting their names changed and stuff like that.

That was just a small detail that Tony liked. I know he’s a big fan of the show ‘Entourage,’ and he’s a big fan of Ari Gold. ‘Ariya, Ari, that’s kinda cool.’

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As much as I loved using my real name in professional wrestling, it gets butchered all the time. Ring announcers, commentary, on my debut on ‘Raw’ Michael Cole f*cked up my name. So Ari seems to be a lot easier for people.

Daivari has been heavily featured on AEW television over the last couple of months. The Trustbusters have been heavily pushed by Tony Khan, because he needs to cultivate his next batch of home-grown stars. Despite all the pushback from some fans, Khan has been a staunch supporter of the stable.

Daivari was also willing to change his name for purely commercial reasons. He was in the 25-Man Golden Ticket Battle Royale for a shot at the AEW World Championship. Unfortunately, Daivari was eliminated after getting hit by a superkick from Penta El Zero Miedo. We’ll have to see what’s next for the Truthbusters and Daivari in general, but we have Entourage and Jeremy Piven’s Ari Gold to thank for that.

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