Vince McMahon was asked about whether he sees AEW as competition during WWE’s second quarter 2021 earnings call last week. The WWE Chairman stated that it’s not the same situation as the “rising tides” in the Monday Night War with WCW and “AEW is where they are.” WWE President Nick Khan took over and talked about how their competition is other TV shows, sports, and even sleep.
Chris Jericho did an interview with Inside The Ropes and was asked about it. Jericho started off by asking what else would McMahon say in that situation and noted it was a smart thing to say by McMahon. He then mentioned the Wednesday Night War between Dynamite and NXT, which happened as a way for WWE to counter-program Dynamite.
“We’re not worried about what WWE is and we haven’t been since day one. We weren’t worried about what NXT did. The whole time with the NXT vs. AEW war, which ended in a total abysmal failure for NXT, we never once had a TV screen watching what they were doing when we were doing it.”
Jericho stated that AEW didn’t know what segments NXT was doing while he thinks WWE’s way was to keep an eye on what they’re doing. He stated that AEW doesn’t care what WWE is doing because they’re too focused on what AEW is doing. He thinks that’s one of the reasons AEW is doing so well. Jericho also knows that AEW couldn’t control what NXT was booking against them, but rather can only control what AEW is doing.
“I think that’s one of the reasons why we’ve gone as far as we have and why our demos have crept up to where they are and where our ratings have crept up to where they are.”
The former AEW World Heavyweight Champion was asked when there will be competition between AEW and WWE.
“So WWE is not competition for us. We’re competition for ourselves. So for Vince to say that – to me, it’s probably reverse psychology and that he does see us as competition. But deep down inside, what does it really matter?”
Jericho continued by noting that WWE has billions of dollars locked in TV deals and AEW is working towards that.
“Now when our demo ends up beating theirs and TV deals start coming in for us at the billions, then I truly think there will be a lot of competition because now you’re fighting for money, you’re not just fighting for bragging rights – and bragging rights don’t mean anything. It’s the money that you make from it that counts. So we’ll see what happens.”
Jericho will wrestle Juventud Guerrera on Wednesday’s Dynamite as part of the storyline with MJF where the former AEW World Champion must win with a top rope move.
