We're two years into the competition between WWE and AEW, but the real fun is only about to begin.
AEW has been smart with their business from day one. They knew the battle with WWE would be a marathon, not a sprint. Even after the weekly Dynamite program premiered on Oct. 2, 2019, AEW wasn't exactly rushing to compete with WWE as soon as possible.
Khan, company officials and top wrestlers like Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks spent valuable time building up a deep roster with enticing storylines and can't-miss matches. To say that all of the patience has paid off would be a massive understatement.
Dynamite soundly defeated WWE NXT in the "Wednesay Night Wars" which spanned 18 months. With that battle over, AEW can focus on competing against WWE's two main programs, Monday Night Raw on USA Network and Friday Night SmackDown on FOX.
Fortunately for AEW, Vince McMahon and WWE officials have committed several questionable business decisions and booking mistakes that have allowed AEW to make this a real wrestling war.
And if this doesn't stop any time soon, WWE will find themselves competing with AEW the same way they competed against WCW in the late '90s and early 2000s.
WWE Is Helping AEW Build A Stronger Roster
WWE received plenty of criticism when they started long series of roster and staff layoffs in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has completely gutted a large portion of its roster, and former main event stars in Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman are no longer with the company.
If Wyatt and/or Strowman sign with AEW? That will give Khan and company even more main event talent to build around, courtesy of WWE's strange decision to downsize its roster.
Ultra-talented but underused talents like The IIconics, Aleister Black, Ruby Riott, Andrade, Murphy, Mickie James, Chelsea Green, Bronson Reed and Bobby Fish are just some of the many talents who were let go this year.
Well, WWE's losses turned out to be massive gains for AEW. The company has already done wonders with Malakai Black, Andrade El Idolo and Ruby Soho. WWE failed to fully maximize the talents of those three stars, and now they all look poised to become perennial main eventers in AEW.
And who knows how many more former WWE talents will land in AEW, where they promise to enjoy even greater success compared to their previous employer?
WWE Is Curiously Ignoring The Competition
Whether WWE likes it or not, the proper thing to do is to acknowledge your competition. They had no problem acknowledging WCW during the "Monday Night Wars", so why's it so difficult to do the same with AEW?
Back in July, during a second-quarter earnings call, McMahon claimed that he didn't "consider" AEW to be "competition" compared to WCW.
This isn't the logical way to go about things. WWE has to accept that there is legitimate competition on the horizon, and they're only going to hurt themselves more if they pretend AEW doesn't exist.
Just look at how AEW has wasted no time in giving fans exactly what they want. They didn't even try to hide that CM Punk and Bryan Danielson were debuting at The First Dance and All Out, respectively. Wrestling fans knew they had to tune in to watch the historic moments unfold.
Things like this should inspire WWE to make their own product better. They should think twice about massive superstar releases from here on out. They should give underused stars some overdue main event pushes. They should start giving the fans more of what they want, and having Big E win the WWE Championship is a nice start. Now it's on McMahon and WWE creative to build from that.
The bottom line is that the more WWE pretends AEW doesn't exist, the greater the competition will grow. Choose carefully on how you proceed from here, WWE.