Jeff Jarrett Contrasts The Business Practices Of WWE And AEW

AEW's Jeff Jarrett knows a thing or two about running a pro wrestling promotion, and he has analyzed the different approaches WWE and AEW are taking currently.

While talking on his "My World with Jeff Jarrett" podcast, the WWE Hall of Famer assessed how Endeavor's key decisions are taken to help investors rather than the audience. He gave the example of WWE moving next year's WrestleMania back to Las Vegas from New Orleans as the prime example of their current mindset.

"To me, it is clear that Endeavor's number one priority is every quarter, are they going to meet their numbers? And they have to play that political gamesmanship number every 90 days, and it's a little ebb and flow. [TKO is thinking] 'We got to show growth, but not too much growth. We got to do this.' Well, I think in their forecast — and they're sitting the high-level finance guys — oh boy, Vegas [WrestleMania 41] was a freaking grand slam winner. Do we really want to come next year and come out with New Orleans numbers? Because I'm assuming, Conrad, site feeds alone put Vegas way out in front, maybe of everybody, except maybe the Saudi folks," he said.

TKO's focus towards fattening the bottom line was reflected in the recent quarterly numbers, as WWE witnessed a sizable 23 percent growth in revenue compared to the same period last year. Jarrett, further in the podcast, delved into the main differences between how WWE has operated under TKO to how AEW functions.

Jeff Jarrett believes that what we're seeing now is a new WWE, with its owners making decisions that will help them do better on Wall Street, in contrast to Vince McMahon, whose creative decisions were based on what's best for the audience and not what he liked. 

The veteran star compared TKO's approach to the company he works for, AEW, arguing that AEW being privately-owned means that wrestling decisions are made keeping in mind the audience and not the bottom line.

"I'm going to bring it back to kind of a personal point of view, just where AEW sits right now, a privately held company that wrestling is first because Wall Street is first at TKO," he stated. "When you get right down to talent, NXT, all of it — I mean, you look at all the decisions being made across the board on Raw, on SmackDown, on NXT, on premium live events, on Saturday Night's Main Event, it has something to do with the next 90 days' Wall Street report, and I don't think, ultimately, a creative business can succeed in that manner. It's going to be a hard, hard lesson."

Jarrett believes that TKO, being "finance guys," aren't concerned about WWE shows or the company's future, and may instead be focused on an exit strategy to earn more than what they originally invested. He's unsure what will happen with WWE with TKO at the helm in the long run.