Since AEW was launched, WWE has made interesting moves that look like they are countering AEW. Some have gone on record to say that they were offered bigger contracts just to stay away from AEW and there are people in WWE who believe that the decision to move NXT to the USA Network in 2019 was done to counter the launch of AEW Dynamite.
Despite the signs indicating that WWE is concerned with AEW, the public stance from people high up in the company is that they are not worried about competition. During the interview with Ariel Helwani that was posted over the weekend, WWE President Nick Khan said that he doesn’t worry about what others are doing and he just worries about growing the revenue for WWE.
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer stated that he was told that Khan was indeed warned about AEW when he started with WWE.
Meltzer said, “I will say I know that he was warned what was going to happen on the day he took the job…That the competition that everyone will tell him doesn’t exist, if they don’t make some changes is going to be caught up with him very soon and here we are. He hasn’t been there that long and it’s pretty close right now.”
Meltzer continued, “he was warned and he was told that everyone in the company will tell you that none of this is true and it’s impossible this will happen but in fact, it did happen. He can’t talk about that.”
AEW has indeed closed the gap with the key demo ratings that are most important with advertisers and they are now legitimate competition to WWE. Perception wise, this is not good for WWE but the fact is that WWE has so many revenue streams that they will continue to make record profits for many years. What will be interesting to see is what happens when the TV deals expire for AEW and WWE. Presumably, NBCUniversal and FOX would want to continue their relationship with WWE but if they are able to get AEW, a show that primarily attracts younger viewers, then perhaps the TV networks would want some leverage with AEW involved in TV talks.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Wrestling Observer Radio with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. A WrestlingObserver.com subscription includes the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and daily audio shows in addition to thousands of hours of archived audio shows.
