How WWE Is Trying To Sabotage AEW's Oct. 2 Show On TNT

TheSportster

By Alex Hoegler

Published Sep 14, 2019

AEW is just two weeks away from airing its first Wednesday evening show on TNT, but WWE officials have an interesting plan to sabotage it.

WWE has been trying different strategies in order to sabotage the rival AEW promotion, but their latest tactic is something that's almost unheard of.

AEW will start airing a weekly television program on Wednesday nights under TNT, beginning on Oct. 2. WWE started countering this by moving NXT broadcasts to Wednesday evenings as well, under USA Network.

But that's not WWE's only plan for going after AEW. Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t Ringside News), that he and other wrestling media members were invited to see the WWE Performance Center on Oct. 2 - the same date that AEW debuts on TNT.

Meltzer admitted that he would have been happy to see it, but that he "can't see myself going." It'll be interesting to see how many prominent wrestling journalists accept WWE's invitation over the chance to cover a historic night in AEW.

Even though WWE is obviously the much bigger and more powerful promotion, Vince McMahon and company have gone great lengths to try and avoid AEW from gaining any momentum. Not only did WWE ignite the Wednesday night wars, but they've also scheduled events that have and will place on the same night as AEW.

AEW aired its Fight for the Fallen pay-per-view event in Jacksonville, Florida on July 13. That same day, WWE decided to air its Evolve 131 event on WWE Network. On Aug. 31, AEW performed its All Out pay-per-view show, the same night where WWE had its NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff event.

But so far, WWE doesn't have any events slated to compete with AEW's Full Gear pay-per-view on Nov. 9. Chris Jericho's cruise tour, which runs through Jan. 20 to 24, doesn't have any competition yet, either. WWE does have its Worlds Collide event airing on the 25th, one day after Jericho's cruise finishes up.

Will This Move Work For WWE?

Although it's a kind gesture from WWE to send out invitations to media members, it's hard to envision the majority accepting the invites when they'll have the chance to cover history. AEW's weekly television program will be a game changer for the wrestling industry, and it figures to be a far more exciting experience than the idea of visiting WWE's Performance Center. We'll just have to wait and see how it all plays out.

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