The worst thing that ever happened to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) was when they bought their only major competition, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) when AOL Time Warner cut its losses and canceled their television programming. The competition was good for WWE and it made it more creative and it allowed wrestlers to chase better opportunities when there were two major league wrestling organizations.
Since the end of WCW in 2001, WWE has faced very little competition. Ring of Honor and Impact Wrestling (TNA) never achieved critical mass in terms of viewers and popularity. The lack of competition has made the WWE a little stale in the past few years and the wrestling audience on television is just a fraction of what it was during the Monday Night Wars in the late ’90s. Sure there is a glut of wrestling on television these days for the WWE and we’re not even counting the countless hours anyone can watch on the WWE Network.
Thankfully, there is now competition with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) which will have its own show on TNT on Tuesday nights in the Fall. They’ve already successfully aired a Pay Per View called Double or Nothing and more importantly, they have the backing of the billionaire Khan family, who also own the Jacksonville Jaguars. While some WWE fans will think AEW will fail, they’ve come along way with a big TV deal with TNT and enough interest in their product to guarantee they will be the second top wrestling organization out there. AEW doesn’t need to beat WWE to be successful and it’s likely they never will, as long as they offer an alternative that will generate consistent eyeballs and rear ends in seats, they should be fine.
Competition is good and the WWE will take notice of what AEW will do.
