Tony Khan Allegedly Overpays AEW Wrestlers to Prevent Departures

AEW President Tony Khan has been at the helm of the company since the very first and is responsible for ensuring everything goes well in the company. With that said, he has been accused of overpaying AEW wrestlers to prevent them from leaving.

AEW is eager to re-sign Daniel Garcia as his contract will expire in October, but no new deal has been finalized yet. This has led to speculation that he might consider leaving the company. Adding to the drama, WWE is reportedly very interested in signing Garcia, which makes his situation even more uncertain.

On the other hand, AEW has already signed Swerve Strickland to a very lucrative deal. In fact, Strickland’s new multi-year contract with AEW will keep him with the company until at least 2028, though the exact duration is not publicly known. This deal is seen as one of the most significant in AEW’s history.

While speaking on Keepin It 100 with Konnan, Konnan explained that when AEW first started, WWE responded by overpaying wrestlers to keep them from leaving. However, WWE later realized they could save money by developing talent through NXT, leading them to release some of their higher-paid stars. According to Konnan, Tony Khan became frustrated when wrestlers left AEW, so he’s now offering higher salaries to keep them.

Konnan questioned the value of keeping wrestlers like Swerve, noting that despite his efforts, Swerve hasn’t significantly drawn more attention or fans. Konnan suggested that AEW’s strategy involves overpaying wrestlers like Swerve and Daniel Garcia to retain them. He speculated that Swerve might stay with AEW to secure a lucrative contract, but could become a big star elsewhere in the future if he remains relevant.

“I think what WWE did was when AEW started, they started overpaying people to stay. I think they figured out, we don’t gotta be paying these people all this money when we got NXT and we can get wrestlers from there and groom them, so they started to let them go. Tony literally gets mad when certain wrestlers leave, so what they’re doing now is they’re making him overpay all these wrestlers so he can keep them.

What has Swerve really done to garner any extra attention or draw any extra fans, but if he wants to keep them because from what I understand, they talked to Swerve and they talked to Daniel Garcia and that was enough for him to go, hey, these are my guys. I’m going to overpay them. Why would Swerve stay there unless he’s thinking, let me get paid for the next five years and be a very rich man and in five years, if they don’t bury me, which they probably won’t, I’ll still be viable and I can go over there. I would have gone there right now because they probably would have made him a big star. They wanted to take Prince Nana with him which, not hating, I’m just stating, I don’t know what the f**k he adds to Swerve except he’s like Flava Flav. I guess nobody else could do that except Prince Nana. He thought of going, ‘Who’s house?’ Wow, that’s gotta be one of the greatest ideas I’ve ever heard in wrestling history. Why don’t you make him the booker?”

Even Jim Cornette suggested that AEW’s high salaries for wrestlers like Strickland do not match their revenue impact. Regardless, Tony Khan will continue to pay those talent whom he believes are worth keeping and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.

What’s your view on what Konnan had to say about Tony Khan? Do you feel Tony Khan’s method to keeping talent will harm AEW in the long run? Sound off in the comments section below!