Paul Wight says smart fans don’t understand why wrestling needs viable competition.
The AEW commentator told Scott Johnson on News4JAX’s Going Ringside that having more than one major company is good for everyone in the business.
“It’s funny because I know I see some of the quote-unquote smart fans on TV and, you know, what usually comes out of their mouth is complete nonsense. They don’t understand, number one, you want viable competition,” Wight said.
“You want competition. If there’s only one brand in town, it’s not good for the talent because if you’re not successful in one company, picked the wrong gimmick, didn’t work out well, didn’t get along with management, whatever things happen, you have nowhere else to go. You have nowhere else to go in the U.S.”
“Now you have a viable alternative. It’s better for the talent negotiating. It’s better for the companies because, you know, talent go back and forth and just like any business, you want good competition in wrestling. You want AEW to do well,” he said. “You want everyone to do well for the talent, for us. It gives us more opportunity and a chance to entertain more fans.”
Paul Wight on Vince McMahon and the Khan family
Asked whether he has seen a shift toward AEW in recent years, Wight said there was only one dominant brand for a long time, and that was by design.
“I have seen a shift in momentum. For so many years, there was only one dominant brand, and that was created by design. You know, the guy that, you know, Vince McMahon, that used to run WWE, was intent on crushing any competition and not letting anything sprout,” Wight said. “That was his mantra, and he was able to do that cuz he had the bucks, the money, to support that endeavor.”
“Along comes the Khan family, who are passionate about pro wrestling and weren’t intimidated at all by that. And we started really slow with a concept and an idea, and Tony has built this thing from the ground up,” he said. “It’s been an amazing start to see where it’s growing, and the potential is only going there. They’re bringing in new talent. The product is really [improving] all the way around.”
Wight said AEW’s TV deal with Warner Bros. Discovery has been “really good and it’s growing.”
“You can see Collision’s doing really good on ratings. Dynamite’s doing really good. The app is doing really well. It’s continually growing. Our international presence is growing as well, in the UK, in Australia,” Wight said. “So there’s a lot of places that a few years ago AEW wasn’t and now AEW is.”
Wight said he recently did a media tour in Poland for AEW, and that the company is running shows in France, England and Germany.
Wight spent 22 years in WWE before signing with AEW in February 2021. He has said before that WWE exclusivity deals locked AEW out of arenas it could have filled.
AEW Dynamite: Blood and Guts is this Wednesday, November 4, at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. It airs at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT on TBS and HBO Max.
