Tony Khan has high hopes for the pairing of Jade Cargill and Stokely Hathaway.
At AEW Double or Nothing, Stokely Hathaway made his AEW debut, coming to ringside during the TBS Championship Match and distracting Anna Jay enough for Jade Cargill to take advantage and pick up the win.
During a post-show media scrum, Tony and Jade spoke about the addition of Hathaway to the company and the potential of his pairing with Jade.
Cargill: "He’s the best talker in the game. Who wouldn’t want anything less than that, somebody to represent a superstar that is about to come forth in front of all your eyes. Tony Khan made the best decision he could ever make in this situation."
Tony: "I was in a very unique position. It was pretty unusual. Stokely’s 90 days expired yesterday. I had never met him or spoke to him until today, because I do things the right way, with honor. It just so happened that his 90 days expired and I had this idea. We were lucky. There is a lot of independent wrestling and stuff going on, I guess he’s been around Vegas. I had never met him until day, I swear on my life, never had a conversation with him. I’ve had him in mind since 2018, actually. I remember, way back in the day, actually with Cody (Rhodes). I was saying, ‘I really like Stokely Hathaway.’ I’m a big fan of him. He came in today as Stokely Hathaway and having had another name, recently, with another promotion, I never had this conversation with him. Today, I told him, ‘I want you to be Stokely Hathaway. I’m the owner of Ring of Honor, you have a great history with Ring of Honor.’ Not only did I explain that I want to pair him with the world’s greatest network champion, the top undefeated pro wrestler, two years in, with a sparkling record and add to the presentation that has already come so far and so fast. Like Jade said, he’s a great talker, and I literally never met him or spoken to him until today, which is pretty cool that it worked out."
Cargill: "Seriously guys, I didn’t know anything until...I didn’t know anything, this was a surprise to me as much as it was everybody else in this room. Trust me, I was excited just as much as you are."
Tony: "It made for a great moment, it was a great surprise for the fans. The timing, we are fortunate sometimes, it was great timing that [his non-compete] expired yesterday. It’s an obvious solution, putting one of the great champions, who already has so much charisma, with a great talker and they can be like (Nick) Bockwinkel and (Bobby) Heenan, a great talker with another great talker and a great mind. They could be the new Bockwinkel and Heenan."
Hathaway (formerly Malcolm Bivens in NXT) was released by WWE on April 29 and had a 30-day non-compete clause. Before signing with WWE in 2019, Hathaway worked for MLW, EVOLVE, Ring of Honor, and other Independent promotions.
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