Tony Khan banning Linda Hogan from future AEW shows was the easy part

AEW’s CEO barred Linda Hogan for her race-baiting tweet about the uprisings happening throughout the U.S., but it isn’t exactly a strong stand to take.

On May 30, Linda Hogan decided to get on Twitter and show that she’s just as racist as her WWE Hall of Fame ex-husband, accusing “all” Black people of “robbing” and “stealing” in concurrence with the protesting taking place across the United States in the wake of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minnesota Police officer Derek Chauvin with the aid of three of his comrades.

To be clear, Hogan’s white supremacist-themed thesis served to reinforce many long-held stereotypes that paint Black people as “criminals” who are “out of control” and need to be reined in – a perspective that doubles as an indirect endorsement for stricter policing – while conveniently omitting the role the police, military, and MAGA goofs have played in sowing chaos within even the most peaceful of the protests.

And there isn’t enough time in the day for me to chastise her for valuing replaceable objects over Black folks’ centuries-long plight against their tormentors in blue.

She has since deleted the tweet (unfortunately for her, screenshots live for much longer) – instead opting to let other right-wing numbskulls speak for her and focus on animal rights violations, as it’s likely easier for Hogan to stand up for them since they don’t challenge her narrow, twisted worldview – but it stayed up long enough to garner this response from All Elite Wrestling President and CEO Tony Khan:

If you take that retort at face value, you’d be forgiven for viewing it as a strong stance by a promoter that further distinguishes the company he operates from WWE.

And yes, placing Hogan alongside her previously betrothed on the AEW persona non grata list further differentiates it, ostensibly, from the rival federation that welcomed her self-proclaimed racist and homophobic former spouse back as a rehabilitated hero once it believed it could make money off of him again.

But let’s be honest: Was Hogan ever planning on seeing an AEW show in-person before she tweeted that nonsense? I mean, I could ban her from my home, too, but the declaration rings a bit hollow knowing that I have a better chance of hitting the Powerball jackpot than seeing her in my neighborhood (thank goodness).

Conversely, Khan doesn’t have quite the same fervor for calling out B.S. when it comes to, say, Chris Jericho replying to an Instagram post with “All Lives Matter,” doubling down on a live video stream, misappropriating Martin Luther King, blocking a Twitter fan who took the time to create a video to explain his point of view, and retweeting – and deleting – debunked falsehoods about the protests (Jericho did post some anti-racist memes in the days after, though they continued to obfuscate the dog-whistly message of the hashtag he originally used).

This, of course, speaks to the heart of the issue: Khan freely denounces Hogan, but turns a blind eye when wrestlers in his own company echo adjacent sentiments (among other horrible things) because, unlike Mrs. Hogan, they have a tangible impact on AEW’s financial present and future.

Forbidding Hogan from coming to AEW shows will have absolutely no bearing on future pay-per-view buyrates, but moving beloved top star Jericho down the card for his racial obtuseness might.

It won’t affect the television ratings for AEW: Dynamite, but giving Jake Hager the boot for being a transphobe could (okay, losing Hager wouldn’t hurt it at all, but let’s pretend it does for the purposes of this piece). Projecting boldness is simple when there are no stakes, but not so much when there’s something to lose, and Khan’s actions reify this dichotomy.

Like dozens of other companies who instructed their PR teams to roll out supportive statements on this matter – which ranged from vague to decent – AEW’s primary allegiance rests with one color: green.

And like those other companies, AEW will parrot any stance that helps it accrue as much of it as possible. Far too often, sadly, this dogma often comes at the cost of the concerns and demands of the historically disenfranchised, which, in this case, happens to be Black people.

Khan obviously has no plans on dressing down Jericho anywhere close to the same way that he did Hogan, and that’s a problem. If you have no problem calling out one set or racist comments, you should have no problem calling it out in other forms, too, including from people who drive up your profit margins.

Otherwise, you come across as someone who only stands against hate and injustices when the miscreant responsible has no value for you and your organization.

Listen, you won’t see me losing sleep over Hogan losing her AEW privileges (might as well ban Nick, too); she’s a self-concerned bigot who deserves a spot on the outskirts of society. But if Khan really wants his words and actions to mean something, he needs to keep that same energy for everyone, whether they can make him a dollar or not.