Matt Hardy Details His Relationship With AEW President Tony Khan
Since time immemorial, the wrestling business has been notoriously consumed by the "what have you done for me lately?" attitude, to the point where legendary performers have been either forced to retire or assume backstage roles when a promoter no longer sees value in them. WWE founder Vince McMahon has often been viewed as a ruthless promoter who firmly believes no wrestler is indispensable, and that the show must go on at all times.
As someone who worked closely with McMahon for decades, Matt Hardy, for one, is pleasantly surprised to come across a modern-day promoter in Tony Khan, whom he views as a compassionate person that values "talent[s] as human beings" and not just cogs in a perpetual machine.
"He is an amazing human being overall," Hardy said of Khan in a recent interview with "Daily Mail." "I love working with him. He's like the most fair boss, and he very much values us talent[s] as human beings. There's sometimes where you can work for people, and you know you hear this about WWE a lot, sometimes you just feel like you're a cog in a machine. And they use you as long as you're fully functioning and the machine continues to run. Whenever you're taking out they put another cog in."
'He really considers his employees as human beings'
Matt Hardy revealed that, unlike other promoters, Tony Khan is more than willing to give his employees time off to spend with their families, creating a healthy work-life balance that is unheard of in the wrestling industry.
"... With Tony, if I'm not on [the] shows, if we have a pay-per-view week and I have something on 'Dynamite,' and there's a lot Friday on 'Rampage.' If I'm not on the pay-per-view, he'll just say, 'Yeah, go ahead, go home be with your kids, be with your family.' That's very important to him," Hardy revealed.
"He really considers his employees as human beings, and it's very important to him that they get to spend as much time with their family, and they actually get to have their own lives outside of AEW."
Besides giving his wrestlers the luxury of quality family time, Khan has also been generous in allowing his employees to appear at non-AEW events, signings, and wrestling conventions, another trait that Hardy truly appreciates.
"Also, just the way he allows guys to do like signings, cons, and whatnot," Hardy added. "You know, autograph appearances, sometimes appearances, even in indie shows, whatever may be. And he's very generous and very giving and very fair. He just wants what's best for the human being and the talent."
Other industry veterans such as Tony Schiavone and Eric Bischoff have referred to Khan as "a great person" and "a good human being," respectively, after watching the AEW boss from close quarters in the past few years.