WWE Vs AEW: The War Is OVER!
The wrestling business is cyclical, but the latest cycle of competition has come to an end. How?
Has there ever been a better time to be a wrestling fan than right now?
The short answer to that is probably "Yes", but adopting a less cynical tone for just a second and/or rephrasing the question slightly - has there ever been more wrestling at a wrestling fan's disposal?
That's an objectively easier one to address. You no longer need to be a devotee of multiple independent organisations or watch every major Japanese company's output in different timezones to be inundated with professional wrestling or a rough approximation of it. Astonishingly for where things were at less than half a decade ago, you don't even need to look beyond the North American mainstream.
Between Friday 1st September and Monday 4th September, WWE and AEW collectively produced eight hours of original-run television output across four telecasts, and a further eight+ of Premium Live Event/Pay-Per-View content. A week before that, AEW broke the industry attendance record at Wembley Stadium days WWE announced all-time box office records being smashed by early WrestleMania 40 ticket sales.
This isn’t some wishy-washy “just enjoy wrestling” nonsense, but those would be staggering statistics to read just five years ago, not least considering Vince McMahon’s long-held belief that business hits the skids as the summer draws in. Two billionaire-backed empires, both in rude health. We were force-fed the narrative for years that this was simply not possible and the wrestling war in the 1990s hurtling to a definitive conclusion after mere months of parity appeared to prove it.
What's going on?
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