Ariel Helwani says Tony Khan interview was 'frustrating': Wrestling Observer Radio

Bryan and Dave discuss a segment from The MMA Hour where Ariel Helwani said his recent Tony Khan interview was "one of the most frustrating" of his career. [October 13, 2022]
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[@skill14]

My favorite Uncle Davism is telling Bryan to take the lead and rundown the show, and then Dave immediately interrupting

[@lucasameks7926]

Vintage Dave

[@MADGUNSMONSTER]

Classic MeltzerDriver.

[@drjamesguitar18156]

Its priceless man I love it

[@DaboRanch]

Dave talks more than anyone without actually saying anything.

[@Federer20Goat]

No clue how to have a conversation the dude is brain dead

[@Maekar19]

Dave calling Khan frustrating because of the constant talking is very very funny

[@michaelmurphy8394]

😂

[@tokyoinooshi4836]

Seriously 😂😂😂

[@ianraguse6455]

@@getschwifty9531 no no no

[@JeremyOz]

Ariel wants frustrating? He should try listening to 20 minutes of Dave talking over Bryan.

[@BainesMkII]

He should interview Dave. Then he'd have to consider whether it was better or worse to get 20 minute responses to every question, yet still receive no meaningful answers.

[@RSW2508]

Or 15 seconds of Bryan’s voice.

[@hugrad95]

Lmaoooo

[@kennythetrend3688]

@@RSW2508 Disagree. Love that mans vocal chords!

[@ParadiseDB7]

Unless Dave actually knows what he's talking about, Bryan is a complete joke

[@derekolson2864]

I love that Bryan said that he didn't watch the interview and then assumed what happened in the interview while what he talked about was around 3 minutes of the interview. Ariel would ask a question and then Tony would talk for like 5 minutes about something completely unrelated

[@pankajsharma-zz4ho]

exactly man i mean he is one of the if not the worst journalist(bryan) at this point he doesnt even hides how biased towards aew he is

[@lifeofbrandon_]

That’s normal for ppl doing interviews

[@billrichardson6259]

The issue is that you shouldn't take three minutes to ask one single question several different ways if you already know the answer where the subject can't answer - per legal. It soured the interview.

[@HIta1999]

That’s why Tony is so successful. He knows how to navigate this stuff. It’s his strategy. I respect it.

[@og-ew7pw]

@@HIta1999 yep.ariel is just mad bc he didnt acvomplish wat he intended he called out aew fans tony khan an then when to praised wwe it was obvious wat hes intentions were with this interview an there is no secret he is a wwe fan.so good on tony he knew exacly wat ariel was trying to due

[@IAmRJai]

Wtf is Dave Meltzer's actual point in all this...we've gone around in many circles and arrived at the same place.

[@moralesharold87]

He is trying to defend Tony without it being so obvious.

[@originalrkmorton]

That's the media for ya

[@ronniejdio9411]

First time listening to Dave?

[@moffattman93]

I can't imagine you'll be a regular listener to him long xD i remember when i first heard him a number of years ago and was like 'omg stop saying yknow and uhm you weiner' 😆 I'm only here cos it was in my feed and didn't know it was dave meltzars thing xD quickly paused, just so i could see if there was a quick summary of his point...you summed it up. so thanks for saving me 20 minutes 😅

[@foreheadnutz]

If Bryan didn't hear the actual interview how can he have an opinion on the actual interview.

[@SAMCRO_89]

Cause he's on Tony's payroll to praise them, he literally never says a bad word about him or AEW, so he automatically comes to his defense for everything so Tony will keep sending him the checks. So if he hears someone speaking bad of Tony Khan its automatically not Tony Khan's fault and the other guys fault. Bryan Alvarez is a pathetic AEW simp, being paid by Tony, its pretty well known. You can't take anything he says about AEW serious at all, he puts over even their bad stuff.

[@keepyourhandsup6856]

this 100000% this!!!! zero credibility

[@damonjank1530]

That’s literally his career. Give his opinion on stuff he doesn’t understand.

[@TopTierHater]

Dave saying someone is frustrated because of constant talking is insanely ironic

[@Doom_DeLuise]

I give Dave's "you know. I mean like you knows" 6 stars

[@ronniesouthern7829]

Sprinkled in with the 7 star uhm, uhm,uhm.

[@imfreviews]

8 if it were in the Egg Dome.

[@neiltambeau7710]

Tony Kahn is the reason fan boys should not run a wrestling company.

[@metalnuck3181]

Dave Meltzer is like Dean Malenko. He’s The Man of 1000 words, and he tries to push them all in your ears in the first 60 seconds.

[@6DADADA]

I'd rather you both watch the interview and form an opinion instead of sitting here for 20 minutes and have you both dance around it

[@1234sand1]

Quote from dave here, ppl ask me all the time about the fight. Like I'm supposed to know, well I know but I don't. Dave is amazing

[@shedshitley]

he is without question an unrivaled journalistic talent, and he also once reported that during shibata's surgery the doctors removed his brain and then put it back. the duality of man

[@1234sand1]

@@shedshitley 😆 🤣 😂 that was a classic meltzer moment

[@jamesmiller5331]

7 stars

[@PepsiMan666]

@@shedshitley Dave's dry sense of humor is lost on many people

[@todpolk]

@@shedshitley reminds me of Dave saying “Mark” is equivalent to the N word

[@ryans.1900]

sometimes I wish Alvarez had a "pause" button on Meltzer

[@outlawmudshow9201]

I'd like it the reverse way. When Bryan goes full AEW superstan Meltzer should just mute him.

[@BainesMkII]

@@outlawmudshow9201 Dave routinely "mutes" everyone, by stubbornly talking over them whenever they start to say something he doesn't want to hear. And if you want to call one of them an AEW stan, that would be Dave rather than Bryan. Though Dave is really just a pro wrestling superstan, protecting AEW and WWE equally.

[@730F-Sport]

He's redundant

[@ryans.1900]

@@730F-Sport And very pedantic lol... Like, if someone asked him, i dunno, what he had for lunch, he'd reply with something like: "I had a sandwich. Well, actually, I don't know if you'd call it a "sandwich" per se, because sandwiches involve bread slices. But I didn't have any bread slices, ya know, so, like, I had to use hamburger buns. And for the meat, i had a sausage patty. So, like, technically, the sandwich was more reminiscent of a hamburger. But then you have to ask yourself, what exactly is the difference between a hamburger and a sandwich, ya know? They both technically consist of..." ...yada yada yada...

[@ashreddevil]

A permanent button!

[@djchino774]

As a journalist your job is to get answers to the hard questions. Bryan does not know that because he is not a journalist and his opinion of a good interview is asking questions that the subject is comfortable answering.

[@matthewfrohbieter1803]

Dave has to be the most inefficient talker in the world right now.

[@obsoleteworlds]

Imagine Dave finding anyone frustrating to talk to. Literally interrupting Bryan and repeating himself with his run-on sentences to point this out. 😆

[@619AJ]

It wasn’t just about punk and the elite. He refused to talk about anything regarding MJF as well, amongst other things. So if you don’t wanna answer questions why go on the show?

[@kidneystonermusic]

Ariel: So I wanted to ask you- TK: Dynamite, Rampage, demos, Battle of the Belts, Quake at the Lake, Ring of Honor, everything and everyone is over, I'm not gonna take this shit, money everywhere, demos, ratings, football. Ariel: ... Allright

[@milk_bath]

Sit back down kiddo.

[@starbreaker269]

@@milk_bath what a lame response lol

[@milk_bath]

@@starbreaker269 You really thought you did something clever there, didn’t you? 🤤

[@jessica7228]

Question if you didn’t watch the whole interview from start to finish how can y’all talk ? He was supposed to ask hard hitting questions others wouldn’t dare to ask

[@bidgeon1423]

Bryan Alvarez talks like that one teacher who tries to be your friend while also being the biggest douche at the same time

[@CrackaPackify]

So Dave and Bryan are angry that a real journalist didn't tickle Tony's taint like they do Quality stuff lads

[@RyanGRyan1985]

Alvarez " I didn't hear the interview" Critiques the whole interview 😂😂😂, shil

[@popetaytv]

Shits insane lol Alvarez: If he didn't want to talk about the fight ask other things Regular folk: He did and Tony still babbled about nothing

[@johndunne550]

Exactly!

[@ascalise7235]

He’s an absolute embarrassment.

[@Am0ment0fB]

You get it. Here have a 🍪. Ha.

[@alokpandey8317]

Alvarez is biggest aew marks out here 🤣

[@ROCKETS2965]

The difference is WWE is probably smart enough to say going into the interview, "We're not talking about Vince, so if you want the interview to continue, don't ask." Tony probably wasn't, and has a reputation of being overly transparent to the degree that Ariel probably thought he could get something.

[@burb3rryb3ats]

Over time I've gradually moved away from F4W. All down to Meltzer and his CONSTANT interruption of anyone who speaks, power talks over everybody, and has the most soul draining and painful way of getting a point across, with 'um um yeah ya know um ya know um um yeah um ya know ya know um umm'. This guy is a 'journalist' yet struggles to string a sentence together. Embarrassing. I genuinely wanted to hear this, but of course less than 30 seconds into Brian talking about it, Tuna Melt takes over. I'm done with this clown

[@lucymulligan4670]

These guys should listen to themselves back sometimes. Admit to not watching the full interview: Proceed to spend the next 15 minutes talking about a small part of the interview. If they watched it they would know if was more than the backstage drama that wasn't answered. Call Ariel out for saying objectively WWE is better than AEW right now which is just his opinion. Dave then proceeds to say "there is a lot that AEW do better, they have better matches" As if that is also a fact. A bit hypocritical from Dave there.

[@TTOF_JB]

I forgot Bryan was a part of this conversation for a minute there.

[@rogerbabin8175]

He didn't listen ti the interview so its not like he had much of value to contribute. I'm actually unclear if Dave did either come to think of it.

[@TTOF_JB]

@@rogerbabin8175 I believe they both stated they hadn't. I was just referring to Dave talking over Bryan constantly.

[@yosefvargasx]

Just a minute?

[@RagnarokB]

So did both Dave and Bryan

[@freestaterevolution]

Dave talking about his dislike of the word “marks” 😂

[@kevingraham4735]

Wow … Dave used 7 million words and said a whole lot of nothing 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@jordanspooner681]

Dave sounds like me trying to stretch and essay to 500 words

[@jlyon983]

Dave comparing wrestling promoters to sports leagues is the biggest takeaway here. They don’t need to be as transparent because they aren’t real sports. Ariel is a reporter who has burned bridges with the biggest promoter in MMA over lack of transparency (essentially) and still maintained his reputation and standing in the field. It tracks for him.

[@jamesmiller5331]

Google Mype Sports Ariel helwani being a psychopath and you'll learn everything you need to know. But before this statement was made I guarantee you a big portion of aew fans that were aware of Ariel helwani would have told you that "it's his job" to stir up drama

[@philo2189]

@The Baddestman he's always in people's business.

[@Absinthexx7]

Yeah this is one of the things that actually kind of annoys me about aew. They have a show that’s like 6hrs long and the. I see guys like Jericho come on and say how much fun they had putting the match together. It’s odd to me and I don’t understand why they do it

[@Absinthexx7]

@UCKyIPNav0OCcGSBv9YN71MA I agree with you but I also think that’s unfair to the wrestlers. They just had a match and now they’re expected to come out and talk to reporters in character. Seems like a weird thing that only exists because ufc does it but pro wrestling is completely different. Nobody’s ever expected this and I think it takes away from the show

[@jaybee4288]

I think the transparency helps the company though. Look at HHH giving his thoughts on Braun and Bray. That was good business for Ariel for sure but it was also good for WWE - lots of people watched that interview, he promoted his upcoming event, people praised him and said it was refreshing. He doesn’t ‘have’ to but it goes down a whole lot better than ‘I’m not going to talk about it’ because at the end of the day this is things that people are interested in.

[@TheBurke1986]

Dave is such a mark. U think after 50 years of being in the tabloid business he would get how it works

[@DaveyBlade13]

Dave is not a real journalist, Ariel is. Simple as that 😂

[@lewisgoulding763]

Dave meltzer: *says something* "I shouldn't say that though it isn't fair and isn't a good look for reporters" *says it again two minutes later*

[@bobcassidy201]

Ariel asked Khan "Do you really book by yourself or do you have a creative team?" and Khan just went on talking about Shark Week and Daniel Garcia who main evented a Dynamite and House of the Dragon and HBO... didn't answer the question.

[@demoth]

I think that means he wants credit for it but he does have people feeding him idea. Basically what vince did. They say they have a creative team but vince override them on the daily

[@kev30631]

Tony talked about his process in writing the show go back and listen to it. 41:40 mark in the KZbin interview

[@imfreviews]

I'm just so amazed at these guys being apologists for Tony. I've said it before: can you imagine what the wrestling landscape would be like if guys like these two had 10 percent of the emotional investment in Vince McMahon that they do in Tony?

[@luisugalde6956]

That was until the other day when Dave himself was basically expressing the same frustations.

[@ViewsContent]

Bias is one of the worse things in the world. I absolutely love straight-up people. You have AEW yard fowls on one side and WWE yard fowls on the other. Then you have people that are honest about both companies.

[@Danielson1818]

I think you can be a fan of one over the other, and keep it real. I'm def more an AEW fan, but I don't bs about the pros and cons of each. It's totally weird to listen to people explain away their biases. The internet just makes it worse with people hyping each other up, or tearing each other down. No motivation to be honest.

[@sangan3202]

in the case of this dude it just looks like he wants to talk about dirt no boss should talk about in a professional interview, good way to shoot yourself in the foot

[@pankajsharma-zz4ho]

i like how bryan hasnt even seen the interview but still he will give his take i mean if you havent seen the interview you just cant judge who is on the right just shows how aew biased he is

[@garciastyle]

hearing about a frustrating interview from an equally frustraing Dave.... im banging my head on the wall....

[@kidneystonermusic]

He literally said "I should know but I don't know ya know" 😂

[@shuraito]

then why are you here

[@NostalgiNorden]

@@shuraito He doesn't listen. Is only a troll here to complain.

[@TSTVluvr]

What's frustrating is hearing Dave having no idea how to carry on a conversation and talking over Bryan every time

[@ShowtimeThaRaptor]

Every single time

[@polsdofer]

Exactly. There's never a "I'm sorry Brian, go ahead". Not one damn time 😂

[@ronniesouthern7829]

Half of his conversation is uhm, you know, etc.

[@carlosr6462]

Interviewer: How are you Tony? Tony Khan: sorry, I can't answer that question but Dynamite is on wednesday at 8pm and Rampage 10pm, we recently had the best ratings of all AEW history so you better tune in.

[@chicochannel7702]

I feel bad for Action Bronson though.. When he had him on his show last month AB gave like a blessing for Ariel cause they know each other and would put word out to let TK know that Ariel wanted a interview.. just weird spot to be in..

[@phoenixmodellingphotography]

I watch the MMA hour every week and have always got the vibe that Ariel didn't like Tony from the jump

[@eddieroche8176]

Alvarez: I haven’t watched or heard the interview. Also Alvarez: proceeds to critique Helwani’s choice of questions during the interview.

[@axelerhate9705]

well Alvarez is a TK mark

[@nin_tendo6458]

He can still know what the questions were if he didn't hear the interview...did you seriously not think of that?

[@weedman0824]

I haven't heard the interview yet I know what he said, not hard to think why, everyone is talking about it 🤣🤣

[@timmytv7554]

@@nin_tendo6458 He could have just shut up and let the star of the show (Dave) talk about the portion of the interview he heard.

[@ec5018]

@@nin_tendo6458 reading is different than hearing it you don't get the sense of the persons emotions or reaction to the question

[@egudszenties]

I listen to khan every Wednesday on Busted open. He answers nothing. He got Bully removed for asking him a tough question on the referees. He is an infomercial.

[@whassupg89]

Bruce is right. Dave can’t construct a sentence 😂

[@dn22pkkdd476]

Bruce? Wayne? Why would Batman pay attention to wrestling dirt sheets?

[@MekanikKommandoh88]

Not a Helwani fan at all, but the issue with the interview wasn’t that Tony wouldn’t talk about the fight. That’s a given. He wouldn’t talk about anything. Definitely felt like he didn’t want to be there, which makes me wonder why he agreed to it to begin with.

[@shawnthomas3832]

So Ariel hasn’t interviewed Dave yet

[@Andrewkroesen]

I love Dave. "Everyone assumes I have some secret knowledge.... And I do."

[@xthexpunisherx]

It's funny when journalists don't understand what opinion means

[@kyleabent]

What is Dave even saying here for 20 minutes? Well ya know, ya know, ya know, ya know, ya know? Ya know.

[@Crashj7f67h]

I saw tweets about this on Twitter, but anytime I go on Twitter, I just see people tweeting about what happened and always have to find out what happened.

[@dn22pkkdd476]

The solution is simple. Don't go on twitter Fuck twitter Fuck twitter users

[@ethanbradley2089]

You know who doesn't like the term mark? And Dave is right. He wouldn't do the voice-over for the fight pit. He'd take money from WWF for a year, and not disclose it until he was terminated.

[@MScal0316]

This is why people get frustrated with Dave & Bryan and the way they cover AEW. It's revisionist history to say Ariel was only focused on the backstage brawl. Yes, he did ask about the brawl but it certainly wasn't the focus of the whole interview. Ariel also asked about Tony's relationship with MJF, Tony declined to comment. Helwani asked Khan about Cody's departure to WWE. Khan said "I'm not going to comment on that..." When Helwani asked why "because I don't think it'll serve me well..." Ariel asked about Tony's conversations with Wyndham Rotunda. Tony said he wasn't going to comment (this was BEFORE Bray's WWE debut, Tony said no comment to THAT). Tony was asked about his promo on Nick Khan but wouldn't discuss when or what he's talked to Nick Khan about. So anything interesting that came up, Khan said no comment. Sure, legally he cannot speak about what happened in the brawl. He COULD discuss how he felt in that moment and there's also nothing legally holding him back from answering questions about MJF, Cody, Wyatt, Nick Khan , Stephanie McMahon etc Instead we got a greatest hits of Khan stories AOL, ECW, Bill Watts, Brian Pillman, Lou Thesz. My God, nothing like talking the audience to sleep. So it's funny all of the "journalists" are lining up to defend Tony Khan: "what did Ariel Helwani expect?" That line of defense is letting Tony Khan off the hook.

[@joeyhoser]

I don't know. It's pretty reasonable for him not to talk about people who work for the other company, or are/were in negotiations with, which is basically everything you listed.

[@moralesharold87]

They both even said they didn't listen to the whole interview, so how credible are they exactly?

[@gmcuttin1727]

So what? he doesn't have to answer questions about certain topics if he doesn't want to. No need for Ariel to cry about it.

[@kennethmckinney6274]

Actually both Tony Khan and Cody signed a non DA so neither size can talk about cody's departure legally

[@sangan3202]

bro is just trying to get scoops from the GM like hes gonna tell him anything

[@KingOfWinter]

“Dana is a more successful promoter than Vince”- what kind of statement is this. It’s so so so prove-ably false I can’t believe someone would even say it. Dana maybe more successful at this moment in time but overall Vince blows him out the water and considering Dana has a legit sporting product while Vince was selling the idea of a sport and also Vince is an old man and Dana is in his prime he should be beating him. But Dana hasn’t come close to the numbers Vince was putting up in the late 90s/early 2000s and he probably never will

[@Maggot39967]

Yeah that statement shocked me too. It seems as if that time is just considered a fluke or something. Even though, the UFC was founded and running during the attitude era and did nothing like WWE/WCW were pulling in on PPV. I also think what you said about UFC being an actual sport and WWE not being a sport is rather important in the whole thing.

[@KingOfWinter]

Trevor. Imo Dana having a legit sport is a very important part of this and to me it shows how great Vince could be at promoting when he was at his best. During the attitude era kayfabe was already dead. No one except little kids thought it was real and STILL they came out in the thousands to the arenas/stadiums and millions tuned in at home every week religiously. All for the idea of a sport Vince was selling them. To be fair to Dana that also means Vince could have a little more fun with the outcomes and it makes it a little easier to make a star but still the fact he could get anyone to invest anything into anyone of those guys when everyone already knew they weren’t “real” fighters is a testament to how good he was. Also people like to act like Vince killed the territories and while I will agree he helped tremendously in their downfall the real nail was kayfabe dying and no other promoter knowing how to promote wrestling without it. Nothing was stoping a rich guy from starting up another territory after Vince got rid of the existing ones and people did but it never worked even though that’s how it worked in the past and that’s because people didn’t believe anymore which to me is another testament to how good Vince was.

[@Drfrostybrew]

Tony Khan was in total promoter mode in the interview and sounded like a robot.

[@celtic69]

You know what’s more frustrating, 2 “journalists” reviewing an interview neither have listened to.

[@andynichol4145]

also, in his interview with triple h on bt sport funnily enough, why didn't he ask him about vince mcmahon and all the women he had paid off?

[@Alex-lf5oz]

Because everything going on with that was already out. HHH also wasn't Vince's boss.

[@greyfox4838]

I'm an AEW fan, but this is shitty whataboutism, don't be so fragile, you aren't Tony Khan

[@page6sean]

Everything is out? Who told the WSJ about Vince's dirty deeds, down to the dollar amount? I bet Paul might know, seeing how he and his wife benefited the most.

[@maqclark]

@@page6sean "The call is coming from inside the house"

[@HelloShitty08]

@@Alex-lf5oz he could have asked him at least how he feels about it.

[@jorge9207]

its really cruel how Bryan has kicked himself in the nuts right there. Ariel ask about Saraya, didnt get an answer, he ask about MJF didnt get an answer then he ask about the release of a wrestler to go back to wwe didnt get an answer, he ask him about cody, didnt get an answer. the only thing khan talked about was his football stuff that noone cares about and the 4 hours and 15 min tv time they had that week. and then Bryon comes up with "yea just ask another question" dude he ask him as many other questions as he could, khan didnt answer anything. if i make an interview with the owner of a wrestling company to talk about his wrestling company and the guy wants to talk about anything but not his wrestling company then yea thats the most frustrating and useless waste of time an journalist can have.

[@carlosr6462]

☝

[@kev30631]

Your not mentioning that Ariel started off the interview with Tony by saying, "I thought you didn't like me". Tony implied that Ariel , subverted a process to interview one of his wrestlers. Meaning, Tony has to approve the interviews. So there was a history between them that was uneasy So Tony didn't completely trust Ariel or his intentions in this interview. So the interview was probably doomed from the start.

[@chriskay1449]

Then Tony never should have taken the interview in teh first palce. It is beyond stupid to take an interview then basically avoid answering almost every question. Tony cannot handle any sort of criticism towards AEW and will not talk unless it is to praise AEW.

[@Dementia55372]

@@chriskay1449 If you are an interviewer and you only want to ask your interviewee questions you know they cannot or will not answer then you're either a bad interviewer or set up the interview in bad faith to try to make your subject look bad.

[@philo2189]

@@chriskay1449 he's a promoter promoters promote dingus

[@chriskay1449]

@@Dementia55372 If you are not willing to answer ANY questions, why do you agree to do an interview in the first place? Tony is just as much guilty of bad faith as anyone. Stop making excuses for him. All Tony had to do was say "I was frustrated". That was all Ariel was asking for. Avoiding answering every question asked show TONY was the one there in bad faith, not Ariel.

[@AKSourGod]

@@chriskay1449 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@michaelmirza1933]

Understandable. 90% of his good questions were met with, “No comment”. It wasn’t just the fight. It was the fight, it was HHH, it was contract stuff, it was Tony’s overwhelming amount of positions in life. All met with “I can’t comment on that”. Tony seems more happy to just plug plug plug away for Dynamite and Rampage anytime he gets hit with a tough question

[@gmcuttin1727]

Well he is a promoter, that's what promoters do.

[@sangan3202]

"good" questions lmao, you just want drama, of course the fucking boss isnt gonna say anything about that, youre also forgetting about the fight having an ongoing investigation im pretty no one should be saying anything about it rn

[@michaelmirza1933]

@@sangan3202 You seem to be tunneled on the fight. I don’t want drama, I want information. Grow up

[@kev30631]

He doesn't like Ariel.

[@justin_opportunities]

Interview was fine, Ariel pressed Tony a few times and got nothing. Tony was polite but wasn't going to talk. Ariel started it on a weird note too

[@justin_opportunities]

@The Baddestman no, Ariel opened with a ' I thought you didn't like me' comment, set things off poorly

[@jlyon983]

He’s done this with professional fighters. Not limited to TK. It’s part of his unintentional schtick having seen it play out since the mid 00’s when he was coming up.

[@MrTeamGuy]

@@jlyon983 not the best schtick to begin with :D

[@jlyon983]

@@MrTeamGuy I respect a guy who is not afraid to conversationally address a point of contention with someone in a civilized way, and defend their points of view, right or wrong, if/when confronted. Helwani does that.

[@stacymirba1433]

Good Lord. This was quite something. 20 minutes of Dave saying absolutely nothing but trying desperately to pretend he saying something substantial.

[@MADGUNSMONSTER]

That’s how he’s wired now.

[@danmcculloch2487]

So, the same thing as always then.

[@TheGreatDevlin]

I watched a stellar episode of Dynamite last night only to wake up to this and WrestleTalk crapping on the company. It was the same thing last weekend with Impact's BFG show. Great show followed by a day of "Bully Ray in Impact, Dreamer booking" moans. The IWC is miserable.

[@carlosr6462]

stellar? 😆

[@TheGreatDevlin]

@@carlosr6462 yeah

[@travissmith6380]

I used to love Wrestletalk and whatculture and the like but now 95% of their videos are just PURE Negativity

[@TheGreatDevlin]

@@travissmith6380 I won't say purely negative content but they're trading on negative headlines and clicks

[@travissmith6380]

@@TheGreatDevlin I did say 95%. every now and then they do something worthwhile. it's just you'll watch a great episode of AEW, WWE,NJPW or whatever and the next morning they have video telling you Charlotte and Andrade have called off there engagement.....only to see another video a week later celebrating there wedding that they told you was off

[@scottdecowski4913]

If, well, you know, Ariel, umm, crafted, ummm, his questions, you know, better 😆

[@rubberchix]

It’s it’s it’s kinda like you know. You know back in the 70s okay there was this promoter and, it was a totally different situation but ummm

[@runthebellwrestling]

TK shouldn't be doing interviews while all of this is pending. Especially if he's getting ready to fire people and deal with potential law suits. Any comment he makes can be brought into evidence. But that's Tony's fault for agreeing to it.

[@RelentlessWrestling407]

Funny how he literally says he didn’t watch the interview and then says you shouldn’t have a frustrating interview. Khan literally didn’t answer any of the deep questions. It wasn’t just the questions about the fight.

[@seannetworkblogsandgames7504]

Is there a reason we're spending time defending a SOURCE?? Like, journalism is pressing pertinent information for the public. The source is not supposed to get the benefit of the doubt. They're not supposed to get a pass because they "don't want to talk." You press as much as you can. Helwani got nearly 80 mins out of his interview, but with no actual meat, it felt like a puff piece. And he was frustrated because he doesn't like doing puff pieces, and unlike these two apparently, he has a standard of quality. It's on the source here. If Khan doesn't want to answer questions, he shouldn't expect to be invited back to media outside his echo chamber

[@apjapki]

An interview with someone who won't talk is like a negotiation of what they ARE willing to give you. Ariel's schtick is he wants to be your friend and you tell him things because you are friends. He makes himself part of the story and if someone snubs him, he continues a personal beef on his show until the person makes up with him. This is Ariel. He's a decade long known quantity at this point and despite being a qualified journalist he lacks the very highest levels of professionalism (see when he called out Kevin Owens over a bad restaurant review). He isn't a bad person. He just is the kind of journalist that makes himself the story.

[@MADGUNSMONSTER]

And the first rule of Journalism is ‘never make yourself the story’.

[@The_Halfway_Channel]

Dave Tweets out that he doesn't have enough text to write everything he needs to there, then comes here and says absolutely nothing. He did the exact same thing and it's just as annoying

[@RagnarokB]

To be fair, if you counted all of the words he used in order to say nothing, think of how many dozens of tweets he would have needed to use?

[@stephen301281]

Haven’t heard the Khan interview so won’t comment on it. But the fact that Helwani seemed so comfortable afterwards to burn the AEW bridge after two high profile WWE gigs is… interesting.

[@moralesharold87]

That is his style, he would piss off a lot of people in MMA because he would ask a lot of questions even stuff he probably was not able to talk about. He does not work for WWE, he has done stuff with them but he is not an employee and if that is the belief why did Kahn take the interview. He also asked HHH some interesting questions during that interview and they were answered and moved on from.

[@stephen301281]

@@moralesharold87 I haven’t seen enough of him to argue. I’m sure you’re right. I don’t think he’s employed by WWE, though, but there’s obviously a relationship building there and it is very odd for a journalist, even a confrontational one, to speak so negatively about the fanbase and owner of a company if he wants to continue working with them.

[@Heavy_C]

He’s a real journalist… not a dirt sheet guy. He asks tough questions. Which is why Dana White blackballed him.

[@RolfeSenpai]

@@Heavy_C “Real journalist”. He didn’t ask HHH a single thing about the biggest story in wrestling of the past 20 years.

[@kev30631]

Tony probably took the interview because of Ariel's recent interviews with WWE talent and triple h . Perhaps he saw it as and opportunity to push AEW on that platform also. To give the impression that he's as important as they are.

[@ChichiNaka]

These guys not listening to the interview before talking about it on a podcast is peak wrestling journalism and these two have been at it longer than almost anyone

[@Kjphsuubsjf]

Bryan saying just ask another question without watching the interview is also frustrating lol. Helwani asked multiple questions about a variety of topics and TK didn’t want to comment. At that point why even do the interview

[@alessiogallerano7563]

you are so right, Bryan drove me insane in this instance. TK just promoted his show for the entire interview which is fine I guess but give us something on anything. All the best mate!

[@greeneyedspick]

Only thing was to the frustration Ariel went through is the frustration of me listening to Dave taking 383883 minutes to never get to a point

[@welowee7610]

It’s like listening to a song that never have a chorus 🤣

[@RolfeSenpai]

@@welowee7610 So… most of Pink Floyd?

[@steviemacc2745]

Take a shot everytime Dave says "you know", "um" & "but it's like.."

[@ronarnold1507]

You'd have alcohol poisoning by minute four.

[@cruzcorp914]

Do you want a murder charge? Because that's how you get a murder charge.

[@chrissawyer1484]

Don't do this, folks.

[@leehazell7633]

You sir, are a serial killer.

[@thedoobieshrew0244]

Pssd ot of mi minddd hahahhahhhhahahxhbxbndmjxvzm

[@jasonjimerson7046]

Ariel Helwani... is this the same guy who made a top ten list of notable wrestling talent from England, yet about half that list were wrestlers who weren't English?

[@phoenixmodellingphotography]

The man has a sense of humour like a cheeky old grandma who thinks she's being funny or clever so you just play along

[@ncxeno]

He’s also a 12 time ufc reporter of the year winner lol

[@nathanwheller7037]

So maybe just stick to the UFC stuff.

[@brianmilici3473]

This has what to do with his highly respected job as an interviewer..

[@nathanwheller7037]

@@JarodJoseph it doesn’t ever work out with your first or main love. That’s life

[@GamesRule]

I'm sure it's frustrating to keep asking someone about topics they don't want to talk about. Tony Khan wanted to be there, he said multiple times he was having fun and could stay longer, but I don't feel like Ariel wanted to talk about anything that wasn't a controversy right now.

[@starbreaker269]

An interviewers job is to ask the tough questions. Triple h probably didn't want to talk about sasha banks either but still responded

[@sangan3202]

@@starbreaker269 he didnt ask though questions he just wanted to know drama shit, lowest hanging fruit and its never smart to respond to those

[@TomClancy-cq5om]

@@sangan3202 It’s AEWs biggest, in terms of drama, and people want to know. Why wouldn’t he ask about it?

[@manelsworld]

@@starbreaker269 There are fucking lawsuits that might come up of this situation and you want to treat it like something that should be publicly known and talked, but it shouldn't, they have to take care of it privately. This is a shitty interviewer doing a shitty interview.

[@kev30631]

I didn't get the impression that Tony liked Ariel at all. That was the first issue. Tony didn't trust Ariel so he was very guarded in his answers.

[@tomofthepops]

If you watch the interview he wouldn't give him an answer on most things not just the punk situation

[@bluesandals5969]

A bit weird to talk about an interview neither of them have watched in its entirety.

[@kev30631]

Tony doesn't like Ariel that much. So your not going to talk that much. Tony was using Ariel as a platform to advertise AEW

[@shagrrr1865]

It sounded like Ariel expected Khan to just tell him everything behind the scenes…….. massive mark

[@Luigitron51]

He didn't though. He asked how he felt about it. TK didn't go into have to into detail

[@chrisfrew1624]

I presume you’re talking about Tony Khan when speaking of a Massive Mark

[@mfm4205]

@@chrisfrew1624 no, he meant ariel, the cripple h fanboy who let him lie to him for an hour.

[@phoenixmodellingphotography]

@@chrisfrew1624 We gotta nail a definition down on the word "mark" cause people just use it for anyone they don't like these days it means nothing

[@poisonrana]

We’ve all gotta be massive marks to be on the observer KZbin talking about this shit 😅

[@pooldead7712]

Careful dave saying vince leaving is the biggest story for years to come, the tribalistic fans will go crazy lol

[@pooldead7712]

@@MeMe-td1ye yeah I'd love to hear what hhh knows.

[@Maggot39967]

@@MeMe-td1ye So, you don't consider Owen Hart to be a big story? If people are still talking about Vince McMahon paying for sex in 25 years then maybe I'll consider it a bigger story.

[@jasonrevington]

Helwani sounded insecure right off the bat in the Tony interview. And then in his whiney complaint about how frustrating it is he sounded like a petulant whiney child. I always thought Helwani was a pro until I heard him whine. His insecurity regarding how he feels Tony feels about him showed.

[@rubberchix]

You have low IQ

[@Copperstoned]

It’s the other way around. TK got offended by a question and walked out of an Ariel interview earlier on and then dodged Ariel for many, many months. Ariel even hints at the same right off the bat in the TK interview. TK does the media but he likes to pick and choose because he’s a *mark* who likes to work everything.

[@thedoobieshrew0244]

I dont find I'm a good interviewer, comes of bumbling, hesitant and nervous

[@anthonyboumansour135]

why is Dave so upset about the term marks 😂😂

[@craig581]

I must have missed Ariel's questioning on the Vince McMahon scandal for HHH.

[@adamparker7769]

WWE is ran like a real business and probably made it known before the interview the things Triple H would and would not talk about. TK clearly didn’t do that. If he had, he would’ve missed out on the chance to promote his show in Helwani’s platform because.

[@joeyskywalker1322]

Why would Ariel question Triple H about Vince 🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻

[@billrichardson6259]

@@joeyskywalker1322 Why WOULDN'T he?? ...That's only the biggest story in Wrestling this year.

[@joeyskywalker1322]

@@billrichardson6259 Because Triple H had nothing to do with Vince allegations he’s not involved Tony Khan was directly involved with the Media scum and he’s the boss and then again Ariel didn’t only asked Tk about the media scrum or fight he asked him multiple other questions TK didn’t answer and he would just talk about something else if he was gonna do all that then why even do the interview at all then

[@joeyskywalker1322]

@@billrichardson6259 Also WWE is a professional organization it’s highly likely they had told Ariel before the interview started to not asked certain questions maybe TK should of did the same thing

[@Booth55555]

Would it be possible for Dave Meltzer to complete an actual sentence? Every time I listen to him talk I get this (he doesn't know what he's talking about and he's stammering to talk around it without actually letting people know that he's got no info on it vibe)

[@DarkOperative]

Ariel needs to stop acting like some of us forgot when he was trying to be the top MMA guy and, when asked on his show back then if he “still followed wrestling,” he dismissively shook his head and said “no. Are you kidding me? Come on.” Then Dana iced him out and he had to crawl back/expand to wrestling so that he could still generate clicks. The wrestling community should not be paying his opportunistic motivations any mind.

[@oreosandmilk67]

Oh hey this sounds interesting. Nevernind, Dave is here.

[@briancraig3929]

The thing is, shouldn’t AEW PR let Ariel (or any interviewer) know in advance what is off limits? Why would you leave that open to come up in the interview?

[@MrKillian1983]

TK avoided plenty other questions he could have answered. It was not just about the fight. AEW fans need to stop kissing the companies ass all the time. They have made a lot of mistakes and continue to which ultimately will lead to their demise.

[@badaboom2321]

Bryan is so upset that a REAL sports journalist thinks Tony is a complete goof. What a mark 😂

[@rlboozer56]

Dude, I’m seriously getting fed up with Meltzers inability to finish a fucking thought, either tell him to start doing a better job or I’m out and I’m sure I’m not the only one

[@ashleyramage6958]

The frustrating part was Ariel asking HHH questions like how’s the weather etc. never once asked about Vince McMahon and how much of a coincidence it was that Stephanie McMahon & HHH were pretty much out of power. Then the Vince stuff breaks & Steph & Hunter are running the WWE. But Aerial continued asking TK the same question he was never getting an answer to due to legal issues

[@Michaelhannahjr]

He literally asked him about his heart attack

[@Heavy_C]

There are no legal issues. That’s a cover

[@MrRyanlennie2005]

@@Michaelhannahjr that’s not the same as asking him about Vince.

[@jamesmiller5331]

It's all a massive conspiracy to try and hurt the wrestling promotion that I love *unconditionally* 😍

[@DaveyBlade13]

Ariel Helwani is a real journalist you fellas aren’t. Sorry. Watch the interview next time. Yeah it’s really easy to have a “good” interview with Tony Khan when you ask him softball questions the whole time.

[@QuestOfChris]

Someone needs to get Dave a "y'know box" it works similarly to a swear box.

[@PaulNolanofficial]

I’m finding these two increasingly difficult to listen to. Bryan’s biases and trolling is becoming ever more out there in the open (he can scarcely be bothered to try and hide it under the veneer of being a ‘professional journalist’ any more), and Dave is just getting more and more exasperated the more people start to fairly and constructively critique AEW, it’s booking, talent management and overall direction. It’s a pretty sad state of the affairs. The quality of F4W has dropped off significantly in the last year, to the point where right here these two can’t even hold a coherent conversation as they’re mostly trying to talk over each other. Seriously, i think I’ll just stick to fightful from now on

[@1234sand1]

He bryan u literally said u didn't watch the interview lol, but now u are talking like you did.. mate you need to get ur facts straight 💯

[@matthewfrohbieter1803]

Yeah it’s pretty frustrating. Bryan was so indignant on a topic he has no clue about.

[@Copperstoned]

The word *mark* is not a bad word! The word *mark* is not a good word! It is *the* word to describe certain fans and it’s perfectly alright.

[@DamianDirectly]

It's within connotations. used to describe oneself, as in marking out, it means the content being digested is great. Used to describe others, it's generally intended to mean someone is consuming poor content and obsessing over it. I use it in the same way as I would the word simp. I'd admit for simping over Jade Cargill's appearance and it's all fun and games, but the moment someone else tells me I'm simping it comes off as a dig.

[@rickyd454]

The cohost perfectly illustrates what is wrong with wrestling media outlets x they always try to be friends and dans first, and occasionally slip some journalism in if they have the time. Clearly kissing TK’s ass.

[@aewmark9618]

Areil should take this a learning curve.

[@bugcatcherpaul]

no-one in sports journalism is as salty as helwani. with lawsuits ongoing, what did he expect? khan can't divulge anything that would damage his case

[@Debajyoti_P]

One of them watched the interview partly another didn't watch it at all and they are arguing about it . 😂😂😂

[@willybubba]

Dave, I am 42 years old I am a wrestling "MARK" and I am proud of it. It is NOT a "bad word" too me or many of my peers. I feel like YOU are embarrassed to be a "mark", so that is a "YOU" problem buddy. I know Ariel asking questions that he knows Tony won't answer and then getting frustrated over it is kinda petty but Tony just rambles on, & on, & on about nothing. Reminds me of somebody......

[@iRenz0]

Here’s your Dave Meltzer starter pack phrases/words: You know Like Again Situation Still It’s weird

[@nickpappas17]

Of course Bryan didn’t watch the interview and just immediately defends Tony. Fuckin Mark.