All Elite Wrestling was first announced in 2019, and over the last few years the company has managed to make quite the impact on the professional wrestling industry. AEW has signed some interesting names such as Sting, CM Punk and Malakai Black, and it’s rumored that more big names on the way.
During a recent episode of the 83 Weeks podcast Eric Bischoff discussed AEW’s momentum, and he said that he thinks the company is well on its way to becoming competition for WWE.
“I think it already has been [a watershed moment for AEW],” Bischoff mentioned. “No doubt about it. AEW has the momentum in their corner and if they keep doing what they’re doing, I think AEW is well on its way to being legitimate competition for WWE. I didn’t think I’d ever really hear myself say that, and they’ve got a long way to go. Let’s keep things in context. If you look at WWEs business footprint, their revenue, where they are, who they are and what they are, it’s hard to realistically, objectively say that AEW is competition right now, in the sense of revenue, distribution and all of that. But domestically here in the US, which is really the most important thing for both companies, the reason that WWE is so successful internationally is because culturally they are recognized as great American entertainment and that still has value around the world.
Eric Bischoff went on to say that although there is a gap when it comes to have many viewers watch AEW compared to WWE, he thinks that it’s possible for AEW to close the gap.
“I’m seeing a lot of comparisons, wrestling fans love to and I’m not making fun of this or denigrating it in any way because part of the excitement of being a fan is to engage and share your opinions and support your local team,” Bischoff mentioned. “AEW right now is about half of the total viewing audience of WWE here in the United States. But as I experienced and we all experienced back in the 90s, it’s possible to close that gap. I didn’t think I’d hear myself say that, at least not this soon, but they are on the verge. AEW is on the verge of doing some really really big things a lot faster than I thought they would. Kudos to Tony Khan, to the entire team.”
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