Since 2019, WWE has had a true competitor in the form of AEW. Backed a Tony Khan, AEW has emerged as the number two promotion in the United States, landing a national television deal with TNT.
AEW has gone head-to-head with NXT since September 2019, winning the majority of the weeks in terms of viewership and demographic rating. NXT will now move to Tuesdays beginning on April 13.
Fans have recognized AEW as a real competitor to WWE, but Stephanie McMahon believes WWE is competing with everyone.
"It's not that we've never had a competitor, we just look at everything as competitive. Anything competing for eyeballs and attention is a competitor. In terms of a direct wrestling competitor, it hopefully makes you a better company and re-examines everything that you do and do it to the best of your capability. It's always a good thing," she said on the Bill Simmons podcast.
AEW scored a major perception victory over WWE in 2019 when Jon Moxley (Dean Ambrose in WWE) left the company and signed on with AEW, becoming one of their biggest stars.
Speaking about Moxley's exit from WWE, Stephanie said, "In his particular case, he was leaving anyway. I do believe that was a mutual decision, though I wasn't part of those conversations. His case is a little different. I remember back when it was WCW and our talent were getting stripped away and showing up on their show. It taught us a lot about business. Handshake deals don't necessarily matter at the end of the day. You need to have contracts and do business differently. That was key learning at that time. From this time, we'll see where it all shakes out. We're constantly talking about how we can be better and what we can do better. We always want to be the best company we can be for our fans, shareholders, employees, and talent. We want to be the best."
Moxley hasn't been the only name to leave WWE for AEW in the past two years with names like Matt Hardy, Brodie Lee, Big Show, Christian, and more going to Jacksonville.
Elsewhere during the interview, Stephanie commented on the odd habits of Vince McMahon. You can view her full comments by clicking here.
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