Despite being a loyal WWE Superstar for a very long time, Chris Jericho has gone all-in with AEW and appears to be enjoying the way the company is starting to gain an advantage over the competition. What started as a war between AEW and NXT has seen Dynamite gain the advantage over RAW in recent months, particularly in that key 18-49 demo.
During a recent interview with Jen Eckhart of REINVENTED, Le Champion shared his thoughts on what has led to AEW becoming what many now feel is the world's #1 pro wrestling promotion.
"The last three weeks, we have done bigger demo numbers than WWE RAW has done, which is the flagship show. I think our company came out of nowhere, basically, and really exploded because of a different attitude, and you can see that when you watch our shows," Jericho explained.
"And you were there when we had the show at Arthur Ashe for 20,000 people in New York City, which is basically WWE’s backyard. So to draw a crowd like that and get the reception that we had, it seems to me that we are the hottest wrestling company in the world, and more importantly, we have the cool factor. When you have the cool factor in any form of show business, whether it’s wrestling, whether it’s music, whether it’s a TV show, people jump aboard quickly because they want to figure out what’s everyone talking about here. What is all this about? AEW has that."
"We have changed the industry just by being in existence and focusing on something that was different from every other wrestling company," he continued, "and I think that’s also the reasons why we had such a great fan base that exploded to where we are right now."
There's no denying that AEW is nipping at WWE's heels, and in terms of the preferred company, it definitely feels like a lot of wrestling fans are getting their fix with AEW these days. WWE certainly has the "sports entertainment" side of things covered, but for a lot of people, that's just not working (hence why the majority of WWE viewers are so much older than AEW fans).
This Friday, AEW Rampage goes head-to-head with SmackDown, so one company or the other will have the opportunity for serious bragging rights once those all-important numbers come in on Saturday.