Kurt Angle has given his thoughts on AEW and the competition that the promotion has with WWE.
Last year, Angle went on record by stating that he doesn’t think AEW will be able to top WWE as the number one promotion in the world, which is a logical belief due to the history that the company has and its big money television deals with FOX and the USA Network.
The WWE Hall of Famer was on a recent episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast where he talked about the run so far that AEW has had so far.
He started out by noting how he has been watching AEW when he can because he’s a big fan of Chris Jericho and Cody Rhodes.
“AEW’s done really well. I said last year, don’t expect this company to be number one. It never will be. Be happy with number two, and I also said I don’t know if they’ll stay in business only because of what we’ve seen in history.”
Angle brought up the challenges that WCW and TNA faced when they tried to take on WWE. He pointed out how ROH also had a good run a few years ago when they peaked. He noted that all of these promotions put a lot of money into their product, and they don’t have a lot to show for it.
Angle said that WWE is a money machine and it doesn’t matter about ticket sales due to their TV deals that see them get hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
“I think AEW’s going to need to pick up more TV deals as long as they’re making money, they’ll survive, but I don’t know if Tony Khan wants to continue to throw millions of dollars when there’s not going to be anything coming back, but I’m changing my mind now.”
Angle thinks AEW has momentum and they will survive at least for several years because they’ve done a great job and continue to increase television viewership.
“So it’s a little different than WWE, but I think they’ll have a good run. I don’t know how long it will be, but hopefully, it’ll be a long time because it’s great for all the wrestlers, but WWE is number one. I don’t see it ever going number two.”
Angle also stated that a potential appearance in AEW is off the table.
