Speaking to Insider.com, AEW President Tony Khan revealed why he stayed at the top of the stage to address the Chicago crowd at Collision after he fired CM Punk.
Khan said that his family was at the show and several friends who he grew up with were there in the stands as well so it meant a lot to him to go out and speak to the fans.
“You can’t see everybody’s face from the center of the ring. You have to choose one side of the crowd to face when you’re in the ring. And I wanted to be able to see everybody,” Khan said when he was quizzed why he took that position. “I felt like, I’m not a wrestler and I don’t need to be in the ring, and for this moment, I thought I would just sit down and talk to everybody. That’s why I brought out a chair.”
He said that he thought he at least owed that much to the people in the back and the fans to go out and talk to everyone.
Khan was met with boos but by the time his speech was over, he won a good portion of the crowd.
“When I was done and walked backstage, the first person I saw was Ricky Steamboat and he said, ‘That was great, you turned the crowd. You turned them around. That’s so hard to do, and you did it,'” Khan said.