The wrestling war between WWE and AEW is only in the early stages, but Vince McMahon has done everything in his power to give his business an extra leg up on the competition.
Two weeks ago, WWE announced that NXT would be moving to Wednesday nights under USA Network. They'll compete with AEW's weekly television show that will also air on Wednesdays on TNT.
It's one of the many instances where WWE has countered a big move by AEW. So how do a pair of prominent figures and superstars in the rival promotion feel about McMahon's tactics up to this point?
Following AEW's All Out pay-per-view, Matt and Nick Jackson (The Young Bucks) revealed their thoughts on WWE's countering moves so far - and how they plan to go about it.
"I don’t think we should worry about what they’re doing," Matt said, according to Felix Upton of Ringside News. "I think we should just stay focused and tunnel vision on what we want AEW to be, right? Because as soon as we start to think about what they’re doing too much maybe our originality changes or our creativity changes. We’ve had a goal since day one when we started this thing.
Nick added that they knew WWE was "going to counter." Matt explained this and emphasized that WWE's countering hasn't affected their goal.
"That was not a surprise. We were just waiting for it. So it didn’t catch us off guard. Our goal’s always been the same and it’s going to continue to be the same."
WWE has also scheduled events to counter AEW's pay-per-view shows. Evolve 131 aired on the WWE Network on July 13 - the same day AEW put on Fight for the Fallen, which was the promotion's third pay-per-view.
Related: AEW Confirms They Have Granted Female Star Her Release
Not only that, but WWE also performed NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff on Saturday, competing with All Out. The next AEW pay-per-view event - Full Gear - is slated for Nov. 9 in Baltimore, Maryland. So far, WWE hasn't scheduled an event for that date, but it shouldn't surprise anybody if they do so in the near future.
AEW obviously has a lot of work to do when it comes to catching up with WWE, but so far, so good. They're selling out their pay-per-view events in short time, and things promise to pick up once AEW airs its weekly Wednesday program.
What This Means
The Young Bucks have a strong mindset here in knowing that they can't worry about WWE and its moves. WCW eventually took over WWE during the '90s wrestling war, and the company got extremely overconfident to the point where they were making too many mistakes - which Vince capitalized on. AEW has to go slowly and focus on building their product into the best thing it can be right now. If they do that, then this company will seriously challenge WWE in the near future.