AEW Head Tony Khan Discusses How Competition Drives Professional Wrestling

The wrestling business has not been on such a hot streak since the fabled days of the Monday Night Wars. WWE has just rounded off one of the most successful WrestleMania events of all time. Meanwhile, AEW will celebrate its fifth anniversary at Double or Nothing this May. The spirit of competition has pushed both companies to perform at the highest level, with AEW President Tony Khan telling IndieWire that the apparent hatred between AEW and WWE is the reason why the business is thriving.

"There's a number of big factors that would play into why wrestling has seen such a great renaissance in recent years. I think it comes from the great competition in wrestling right now, and the fact that there are so many great stars competing right now," Khan said. "Everyone knows that the most real thing in wrestling is the competition between the companies. The companies hate each other, and it will be a natural resource that powers the industry. They want to beat each other and take everybody's free agents, and that makes it interesting for everybody else."

Several WWE personalities found the time to fire shots at AEW during the build-up to WrestleMania 40, prompting AEW to fire back. This included airing the controversial footage of CM Punk and Jack Perry brawling at All In, and Will Ospreay claiming Triple H only got to where he is by sleeping with Stephanie McMahon, on the April 10 episode of "AEW Dynamite."

Please credit IndieWire when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.