Road Dogg Comments On Whether There Is A ‘War’ Between WWE And AEW
WWE and AEW have been the first and second-largest professional wrestling organizations in the United States for the past three years, with AEW coming to fruition in May of 2019. WWE has been around for decades upon decades and is still the largest wrestling promotion in the states.
While on "Insight with Chris Van Vliet", former six-time WWE Tag Team Champion and WWE Hall of Famer Road Dogg commented on whether or not there is a war occurring between AEW and WWE.
"[AEW is] not going head to head with [WWE] so it almost feels more like, not a war but like — I don't know — Like, there is another wrestling show on," Dogg said. "... I don't think the boys are so in a competition, in a war, as the offices are, you know what I mean?"
AEW and WWE went head to head on Wednesday Nights from October 2019 all the way up until April 2021. "AEW: Dynamite" and WWE's "NXT" both ran on Wednesday Nights from 8 P.M. until 10 P.M., with "Dynamite" being on TNT and "NXT" being on the USA Network. "AEW: Dynamite" ended up winning the war, as their ratings were typically higher than those of "NXT's."
On April 13th, 2021, "NXT" made the jump to Tuesday nights, a night where the black and yellow brand, which eventually would be turned into what we know today as "NXT 2.0," would not have any other wrestling show to compete with. WWE has not competed with AEW in a consistent manner since.
Previous to this, the last time WWE had real competition in a ratings war was during the Attitude Era when they and the now-defunct WCW would both broadcast shows on Monday night, which resulted in the Monday Night Wars. WWE aired "Monday Night Raw" and WCW aired "Monday Nitro" at the same time every Monday. WCW took a lead in the ratings for 83 weeks but ended up losing the war. Just a short time later, WCW would be bought out by WWE and Vince McMahon.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Insight" with Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.