Posted in: AEW, Sports, TV | Tagged: aew, bret hart, tony khan, wrestling

Tony Khan Happy Bret Hart Getting Paid by WWE… Or Is He?!

Published Thu, 12 May 2022 11:45:10 -0500

AEW scored quite the coup when they made a deal with Dr. Martha Hart to celebrate Owen Hart's legacy in AEW, including but not limited to the current Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. But AEW will have to celebrate Owen's legacy without brother Bret Hart. Hart recently signed a new merchandise deal with rival WWE, in no small part due to the constant mentions of hart by AEW tag team FTR and references to hart by FTR and CM Punk, which apparently scared WWE into offering Hart big money to bring him back into the WWE fold. But in a recent interview with TSN, AEW founder Tony Khan wasn't bothered.

Tony Schiavone and Tony Khan appear on Impact Wrestling

"First of all, we have a great respect for Bret Hart as a company and as individuals," said Khan. "A lot of the wrestlers here and myself respect Bret Hart as a great person and a great wrestler. He would always be somebody we would treasure whenever he's around. He was involved in the first Double or Nothing [in 2019, when he unveiled the AEW World Championship for the first time]. He said he's happy at home right now. It's a great thing he's got going and we've just got so much respect for Bret Hart."

Khan went on to point out that AEW can benefit from the Bret Hart love without Hart's actual involvement.

"It's an honour to pay respect to Bret Hart and, of course, and it's something that Dax and Cash and CM Punk in particular have bonded over and had great matches with each other and with other people along the way – Dustin Rhodes had a great match with CM Punk, also, that I think reminded some people of the matches he had himself with Bret in the past," he said. "Now there's opportunities ahead for big matches with all of those people."

But is Khan being 100% truthful about his feelings on the matter? In the interview, which took place before last night's AEW Dynamite, Khan hyped the first-round Owen Hart Foundation Tournament match between Adam Cole and Dax Harwood as a legacy match, with Harwood a disciple of Bret Hart and Cole a student of Hart's longtime nemesis, Shawn Michaels. But it was Adam Cole who walked away with the win on Wednesday night. Looks like Tony's got two words for you, Bret!

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