It's pretty clear that WWE views All Elite Wrestling as competition, hence why they're pulling moves like having an EVOLVE show air on WWE Network opposite Fight for the Fallen and signing its Superstars to big money contracts to stop them from leaving.
Well, AEW executive Jim Ross has now revealed in a conversation with Stone Cold Steve Austin why it would be foolish to describe the company as competition at this stage. That may sound like Ross is bashing the company he works for but he's just being realistic and making sure people don't view AEW as a failure (especially ahead of ratings coming in for its weekly show on TNT this Fall).
"I get a kick out of some of these amateur analysts, armchair analysts, that want to bring up, ‘Well, it’s gonna be competition.’ ‘Oh, AEW’s gonna be great competition with WWE.’ Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Right now? Maybe someday, they’ll be a competitor. But WWE’s got such a long head-start on everybody. They’ve got that global footprint. You know, it’s a publicly-traded company, they’ve got money! They’ve got huge money from these TV deals. Nobody’s gonna catch WWE, and that should not be anybody’s goal. It sure as hell isn’t mine. I don’t care what they do, I hope they do well. I’ve got friends that work there, and they made me a lot of money and I’m very blessed."
He's completely right what he's saying and it's no bad thing that, for now, AEW is an alternative to WWE rather than trying to compete. After all, the company has a long way to go until it has the sort of presence that WWE does and it's easy to forget that they only have a couple of shows under its belt at this stage!
Do you think AEW will one day be a real competitor for WWE, though?