Competition makes everybody better, and that's the bottom line, 'cause Stone Cold said so.
Speaking with Nick Hausman of Wrestling Inc., Steve Austin was asked if he has had a chance to check out AEW and what his thoughts are on this new entity in the pro wrestling marketplace. He said the following:
"Man, I love it. I think it's competition by proxy just because they're wrestling, WWE's wrestling, but I don't think they're directly trying to compete. But, in essence, they are. I love it because it gives more people within the industry jobs, it gives more people a chance to work, and it makes WWE -- it forces them to push the envelope rather than just sit back and just push out content. Competition makes everybody better, I'll bottom line it like that without going into minutiae and details."
Stone Cold was a key player for the WWE in the mid-late 90s and early 2000s when they went head-to-head with WCW. Austin says that in his mind the idea was never to put the competition out of business, which did happen in 2001, but simply to beat them in the ratings war. He added this:
"Then the product is better because you're forced -- 'Hey man, what are these cats doing over here? Pretty good stuff. What are we doing? We need to up it a little bit.' So, yeah, that checks and balances...To answer your question, AEW is a good thing. It's a good thing for everybody, including WWE."
Recently, it was officially revealed that NXT will be moving to Tuesday nights following WrestleMania 37, effectively ending the Wednesday night ratings competition with All Elite Wrestling. Triple H shared his thoughts on the matter. His comments can be seen here.
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