Tony Khan is defending a decision made by his father to buy 100% ownership of Four Seasons Hotel Toronto back in 2016.
The hotel was previously owned by Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) based out of Saudi Arabia, and some have compared the purchase to WWE signing a 10-year deal with the Saudi General Sports Authority.
Speaking passionately, Tony Khan reiterated that these are not similar at all. He said “I’ve wanted to say something for a very long time. I’m just going to say it. I’ve never brought this up, but I see people saying stuff online, and me bringing this up will probably only make it worse, but “I’m just going to say it. My dad bought the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto from a person who is a Saudi person five years ago. That is the beginning and the end of it. It is very much an apples and oranges thing when you compare the ongoing business relationship (other companies have) going on with Saudi Arabia to what my dad did purchasing a property and moving on from the person, not the government. But I see people say like, ‘Ah, Shahid Khan did that.’ That’s bullshit.”
Finishing off his statement, Khan said “I’ve seen people say it for years, and if you’re a wrestling fan and you see people say it, I would ask you to say ‘That’s not the case.’ Because my dad is not involved in ongoing businesses. He bought this hotel a number of years ago. Very different thing from what’s going on in that part of the world. For years I’ve wanted to mention this and since we brought up Canada I thought it would be a relevant thing to say.”
Thanks to Fightful for providing transcriptions. Check out his full media scrum here.
