10 Times WWE Had Their Head Up Their Ass
6. "It's A Marathon, Not A Sprint"
![Vince McMahon Big Show](https://d2thvodm3xyo6j.cloudfront.net/media/2020/03/e6e3b922c53d9f91-600x338.jpg)
In a quite splendid self-own, WWE "congratulated" AEW for winning the first ratings battle of the Wednesday Night War in a press release.
Weirdly - though in a manner consistent with the way WWE behaves as an organisation, so normal - it was framed as if AEW had decided to run against NXT, and not the other way 'round. In a breathtaking slice of copy loaded with insincerity, some poor prick had to write the following:
"The real winners of last night's head-to-head telecasts of NXT on USA Network and AEW on TNT are the fans, who can expect Wednesday nights to be a competitive and wild ride as this is a marathon, not a one-night sprint."
Good God almighty what a drastically immature reaction only a company detached from reality could have made. Actually, AEW didn't win because people liked NXT too. People said the wrestling was really good. That's the real quiz, that's the real quiz!
What happened on October 2 was this, and it illustrated the strategy of both sides: AEW formed a heel stable that acted as a big bang of storytelling that spanned several months and several more match combinations; NXT in contrast spaffed their load by booking the most popular act among the teenage demographic to lose within the first 20 minutes of the show.
One side was sprinting, all right.