Everybody wrestling’s fandom started somewhere and Tony Khan’s first invite into the wild world of the squared circle didn’t even begin with seeing the action in the ring.
Khan spoke with ESPN’s Dan LeBatard on his “South Beach Sessions” podcast about how his initiation into the “one true sport” came through of all places, the classic TV The A-Team.
“I saw Hulk Hogan on The A-Team and he was like a special guest star in like that he was almost like a guest member of The A-Team? Like he rode in the van with them, like he would distract people when they were on the missions and stuff and they showed him in the context of being like Hulk Hogan the wrestler and wrestling and it’s kind of crazy that the first time I ever saw wrestling, but that’s the first time I really remember seeing anything with wrestling at all and then I wanted to learn more about it and then I started watching and learning about all the different wrestlers when I was like six, seven years old. It just became like a huge part of my life, like other sports…”
Khan rattled off three big names who influenced his pro wrestling childhood and being at such a young age considered them athletes in just like any other sport.
“Ric Flair and Macho Man Randy Savage, Bret Hart were guys that I were a huge fan of as a kid and they were some of my favorite athletes and I didn’t know the difference when I was six, seven years old. If you asked me who all my favorite athletes were at the time, I probably would have said Jeff George as the quarterback of Illinois when I was kid and Randy Savage ‘The Macho Man.'”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
You can listen to the entire conversation with LeBatard by going here.
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