A Look At Why WWE Getting Its Groove Back Hurts AEW

Wrestling Inc. Senior News Editor Nick Hausman recently conducted an exclusive interview with Wrestlenomics' Brandon Thurston about WWE's current popularity growth and how it affects AEW.

"It hurts AEW. One of the values of AEW, one of the reasons for it existing is that it's a strong alternative to WWE," said Thurston. "One of the reasons why there was a good opportunity for AEW to launch in 2019 is that, first of all, there's great value in TV rights fees. I think WWE will finalize TV rights fees in the spring, maybe AEW a little bit after that. Tony Khan has said himself, he saw the great deal that WWE got in 2018. They got their TV rights fees more than tripled. So there's great revenue opportunity there.

"Add that into the fact that WWE has turned off a lot of its fans, it's turned off a lot of its talent. So there was talent not happy in WWE, there was talent available who had never been to WWE. They were all available, so there was a lot of talent to gather to produce a strong wrestling product. There was a great revenue to gain for producing that strong wrestling product, that would serve fans who were, for years, not being satisfied with the mainstream WWE product."

Thurston noted that WWE is a better product than it's been since the late 2010s. As long as Vince McMahon was the head of creative, the better it was for AEW. Now with Triple H being competent in his job, "the ceiling for AEW is frozen." The dream that AEW will "one day become as popular or more popular as WWE" is less likely now.

Though Thurston doesn't believe that AEW is going out of business soon, since they're still among the most highly viewed TV programs in 18 to 49 on Wednesday night.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Wrestling Inc. with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.