Since AEW launched in 2019, WWE has taken measures to slow the growth of AEW, whether that be holding NXT premium live events against AEW shows, such as this past Sunday when AEW held its biggest event of the year, Double or Nothing, while WWE had its NXT Battleground event.
They also moved NXT from the WWE Network as a one-hour program to the USA Network, making it live and extending it to a two-hour program to head-to-head with AEW Dynamite. Ultimately, WWE moved NXT from Wednesday nights to Tuesday nights after losing the majority of the time in the ratings.
In MLW’s lawsuit against WWE, they alleged Triple H tried to convince Madison Square Garden to not host the ROH-NJPW G1 Supercard event in April 2019. Now, WWE is reportedly trying to limit when and where AEW holds its shows.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that WWE has put in some interesting clauses in its deals with venues.
Meltzer wrote, “there is an interesting note that in arenas that do rent to both AEW and WWE, WWE has put clauses in its deals that AEW can’t run a certain number of weeks before or after the WWE show, and also that AEW and the arena can’t announce the show or sell tickets until after the WWE show has taken place.”
