What Dan Lambert REALLY Thinks About AEW & WWE
AEW alpha villain Dan Lambert on AEW, WWE, Bobby Lashley, and more.
In character, Dan Lambert is a regressive anti-AEW provocateur, embodying the promotion's worst critics in rants against "soft", undersized wrestlers, "outlaw mudshows", millennials, and more, spitting the kind of incendiary rhetoric usually reserved for the dark corners of Twitter and fringe podcasts.
Out of character, his views on modern wrestling are more thoughtful.
Speaking with Cageside Seats' Shakiel Mahjouri, Lambert compared what AEW and WWE are currently bringing to the table, conceding that he has a tough time watching the world's biggest promotion (but putting over former World Champion Bobby Lashley):-
“I’d like to hope it’ll be back to the Monday Night Wars where everyone keeps stepping their product up to outdo the competition. “Call me biased because I’m with AEW right now, but I don’t see WWE stepping their game up. Bobby Lashley is a real dear friend of mine. I love the guy. I’ve known him for 15+ years and I’m not even at the point where I’m fast-forwarding through Monday Night Raw to get to his shtick. I don’t even hit play. I’m not a big fan of WWE’s product these days. I still think they have some really good talents over there but I just have a hard time watching it."
On AEW, while Lambert conceded that he doesn't love everything about Tony Khan's product, the promotion's "buffet of styles" differentiates it from the competition:-
“The wrestling boom, in my mind, is what AEW is doing and watching their product and watching their show. Even though there are certain things in it that I don’t like. Some of the things I say in my character, I actually believe. But there are so many other things that they have. Talk about having a buffet of different genres of professional wrestling. You go to one show at AEW and see every style you like and a couple of other styles you don’t like. WWE is more of the same for me.”
The American Top Team founder went on, unpacking some additional criticism of WWE:-
“I see WWE as being somewhat egotistical in their approach that they are who they are and what they are. They don’t have to change anything or do anything differently and people are still going to watch. I think it’s had a little bit of an opposite effect because I think a lot of people support AEW just because they want to stick their finger in the eye of a WWE that’s run roughshod for all of these years.”
Lambert has been an AEW regular since July, bringing ATT-affiliated mixed martial artists Junior Dos Santos, Andrei Arlovski, Jorge Masvidal, and more with him. He is currently managing The Men of the Year (Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page), who will face Chris Jericho and Jake Hager on next Friday's episode of Rampage.
Check out Shakiel Mahjouri's full interview with Dan Lambert below:-