Thanks to TNT's NHL coverage, AEW Dynamite is moving to Saturday nights for the next weeks. Needless to say, that's going to hurt the show's ratings, something AEW President Tony Khan acknowledged during a recent interview with Barstool Sports.
"It sucks to not be on Wednesday night, this week [especially] to be honest," he admitted. "We’re on this great run recently. We had six straight weeks as the number one show on cable and satellite on Wednesday night. The show is huge thanks to the great fans and the great support of outlets that give AEW coverage and have allowed AEW to come from nothing, nowhere two years ago to now in the eyes of many, over a million fans, the number one wrestling company in America."
After touting AEW's success, Khan went on to talk more about this Friday's episode of Rampage going head-to-head with SmackDown. "It’s the second time they’ve chosen to put their wrestling head-to-head with mine. The last time they did it, it didn’t happen overnight, but really from the start AEW consistently did better numbers than NXT, and we won that war."
It was at this point in the interview that Khan fired yet another shot at the current WWE product.
"We’ll see what happens. I’m not saying for sure we’ll win, and maybe the odds are against us in some ways. But we’re going to give a better show. I know. If you don’t believe me, watch the go-home show they did last night, because it sucked." That's a reference to RAW and when the interviewer encouraged Khan to "talk his sh*t," Khan responded: "Am I? Did you watch it?"
Something tells us WWE isn't going to appreciate these remarks, and it's clear the rivalry between the two companies is heating up in a major way. It feels a lot like we're on the verge of another WWE vs. WCW-style war, and the ratings this Friday promises to be well worth keeping an eye on...