Paul Wight thinks people comparing AEW to WWE are comparing seven years to forty, and that some of the gap has nothing to do with either company’s talent.
Wight spent more than two decades with WWE before joining AEW in 2021. He told TMZ’s Inside The Ring that he sees the same potential in AEW that he saw in WWE.
“I helped build the company for 20-plus years. I mean, build it, and gone through rating wars and the Attitude Era, and when the business went down for a while and all the things that went through, from the territories and stuff. I’ve been through that with the other places and seen where the other places have grown.”
“I also see that same potential at AEW.”
He said time is the main variable.
“Our company’s only been around, what, seven years? We’re still building. We’re still building a global impact.”
His example was Wembley.
“We’re going back to Wembley. That’s a huge stadium for us to fill, to put asses in seats, and we’re building that relationship in London and the UK, and that’s going to grow.”
AEW runs All In: London at Wembley on Sunday, August 30, its third show at the stadium and its first there since 2024. The company drew 72,265 to the first one in 2023 and 46,476 to the second, and moved the 2025 edition to Globe Life Field in Texas before bringing it back to the August Bank Holiday weekend and to London this year. Kenny Omega defends the AEW Men’s World Championship against Will Ospreay, who grew up about an hour from the ground, and Willow Nightingale defends the Women’s World Championship against Mercedes Mone.
He also said AEW has been shut out of certain arenas entirely by exclusivity arrangements.
“You can’t really compare logistically with a company that’s had 40 years of dominance, because they didn’t have any competition, and where competition was so thoroughly snuffed out.”
“There were buildings that we couldn’t wrestle in in AEW that we could fill, because there were contract agreements between them and WWE. No wrestling 90 days before, no wrestling 90 days after. They work the building three times a year. No other wrestling can go into that building.”
“So then that’s tough. You might not be able to go into certain specific marketed buildings that are big; you have to go to a smaller venue. Well, sure. Does that affect how your brand’s presented? Sure, for now.”
He said the answer is patience.
“All we can do is just keep our heads going, keep pushing forward, onward and upward, and we’ll grow. The talent’s going to be there. There’s new talent that comes along all the time. You don’t know what’s going to gravitate. You don’t know what’s going to pick up.”
He also said the health of the industry matters more to him than which brand wins.
“Speaking from a talent’s perspective, you want more companies to do well. You want people talking about wrestling and excited about wrestling, whether it’s your brand or someone else’s brand. Of course you want people to like your brand more, but it takes time.”
He said no period is the peak.
“I’ve seen the highs and lows in wrestling. There’s no oh my God, this is the best ever. It’s hot now. It’ll change. There’ll be new stars that will come along. There’ll be new champions. There’ll be new contenders. There’ll be new rookies. There’ll be new sensations.”
“The main thing is you just have to go out there and keep giving the people the best product you can.”
Exclusivity clauses of the kind he describes are standard in arena bookings across the live entertainment industry. A promotion that cannot get into a market’s biggest room has to take a smaller venue or skip the market, and the resulting attendance figures get compared to its rival’s regardless.
Wight has his own date in the Wembley build. He and Jeff Jarrett host a free Dynamite watch party at Fulham Pier in London on August 26, part of a week of AEW events around the show.
He signed with AEW in February 2021 and works as a commentator and coach, appearing on Collision. AEW was founded in 2019, ran its first show that May, and its remaining pay-per-view calendar this year includes All In on August 30, All Out at NOW Arena on September 26, WrestleDream in Orlando on October 17, and Full Gear in Phoenix on November 14.
