While he didn't refer to them by name, Vince McMahon talked publicly about All Elite Wrestling for the first time during last Thursday's WWE earning conference call. He dimissed the company as being a gory, less sophisticated product, and talked about finding it doubtful that TNT would allow "blood and guts" on the network.
Now, Dave Meltzer has shed a little more light on what Vince was getting at and believes that his comments may have been a dirty trick made to make advertisers think that AEW isn't a company they should promote their PG friendly products during.
"At the stock conference on Thursday, Vince was trying to categorize them as blood and guts wrestling," Meltzer explained. "The belief in the advertising community is that Vince was trying to bury them with that they are doing that wrestling that you’re not supposed to advertise on."
"Some people say that’s a dirty trick but that’s Vince. You’re in a war with Vince, that’s what Vince is gonna do. People in the advertising community that talked to me [said] ‘what a dirty trick.’ But it’s a wrestling war [but] yea in the real world, that’s a pretty low trick but it’s a wrestling war and both sides are gonna have to figure out. That’s how Vince is gonna react."
So, it's a dirty move but one that was to be expected. What do you guys think?