IMPACT Wrestling Executive Vice President Don Callis, who’s a close personal friend and plays the on-screen manager of AEW World Champion Kenny Omega, was recently interviewed by David Penzer on David’s “Sitting Ringside” podcast.
During the interview, Callis was asked if there is any chance Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers as well as The Young Bucks will end up back in NJPW for appearances. Callis was also asked if he was worried that Tony Khan may put an end to the AEW – IMPACT Wrestling partnership.
Below are the highlights:
On if he was worried that Tony Khan may put an end to the AEW – IMPACT Wrestling partnership:
“Tony Khan had me as guest commentator. Tony Khan never said please don’t get involved in any match. He said please come here and be an honored guest and commentate for us on our show to help us. I don’t know, quite frankly I haven’t spoken to Tony to know what his reaction is, but I can tell you this – I gave Tony what no one close to him had ever given him which is a real take on the wrestling industry. As you know, the business, and I don’t mean this to be disrespectful, are loaded with yes men and office stooges.
Guys like that don’t tell the boss what he needs to hear. They just want to keep him happy so they keep getting a check. There is nothing that Don Callis could have told Tony Khan about the wrestling business but there was something that Don Callis could have shown him. Tony needed to go through that. If someone tried to describe it to him, he would not have believed it. He believed it when it happened to him. I think Tony is wonderful for the wrestling industry. I think Tony is passionate. I think he’s done a great deal of good. I don’t look at it that Tony got screwed or anything.
I look at it that Tony got mentored. Sure there are things Tony Khan can probably teach me about analytics or personal finance, I don’t know, I wouldn’t take it personally. I would say, hey, he knows more about that than I do. That’s how I look at my live interaction with Tony.”
“So, Tony is free to shut down whatever that means. I don’t know. I don’t care because you can’t rewrite history. You can’t take away what Kenny Omega and I have done. You look at what a lot of people are talking about today.
You have an executive vice president of a competing wrestling company have a World Title change. You had an executive vice president of another wrestling company take the AEW World champion to a competing wrestling company for an appearance, for multiple appearances. You now have that inter-promotional main event at Hard To Kill. Then you got to see The Invisible Hand Don Callis, and just when you thought you saw it all, oh my God, The Band is back together. We’ve got The Good Brothers here. You’ve got The Young Bucks here. People are saying, my God, Don Callis now controls not just the AEW Champion, he controls the tag team champions of both companies. I don’t like to use the word control because I don’t believe I have control over anything, only myself.
I think if I had told you a year ago that in a course of three to four weeks that all of this would happen, I’m quite sure you and a lot of people would say that’s a fantasy. That’s because people that are in the wrestling industry that scurry around the ring like ants, like insects, going from segment to segment, match to match, tweet to tweet are missing the big picture and they always will.”
On if there is any chance Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers as well as The Young Bucks will end up back in NJPW for appearances:
“I see my business with New Japan as being done. When I went into New Japan in 2017, they were at one level. When I booked Jericho vs Omega at the Tokyo Dome, their entire business model changed. Their revenue from that Tokyo Dome show went up exponentially and they’ve been riding the Don Callis effect ever since.
There is nothing left for me to do in New Japan because anything I could do in New Japan now would pale in comparison to the game changing force of nature from what I did three years ago.”
