Former Producer Road Dogg Says WWE Doesn't View AEW As Competition But It Should

Road Dogg's WWE exit in March 2026 caught a lot of people off guard as the WWE Hall of Famer had only been made the lead writer of "WWE SmackDown" one year earlier. Road Dogg would go on to open up about the reasoning behind his exit shortly after by saying the company was moving too fast for him, but he has since opened up even more about life in behind the scenes in WWE, and was recently asked about WWE's perception of their biggest rivals, AEW.

During a recent appearance on "Busted Open Radio," Road Dogg was asked if WWE ever looked at AEW as a legitimate competitor, or if the powers that be in WWE dismissed Tony Khan's promotion as just another entity who they didn't need to worry about. Road Dogg explained that people in WWE did have much more of the latter mindset, which in hindsight may have been a mistake.

"No we didn't, and we probably should have to be quite honest with you," Road Dogg said. "Instead, I think it was looked at like 'Oh that's this other little money mark's company,' you know what I mean? I honestly think that's how it was kind of looked at, and I would argue however long we are into their tenure, that was wrong to be looking at it that way. They're here, they're still here, they're still strong, I would argue they're getting stronger, I would argue adding Mike Mansury to their team who runs their truck now was a huge step in the right direction. He's a smart guy with good instincts, and there's more than just two guys and a referee when running a wrestling show, you've got to have guys with good instincts."

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