Vince McMahon On AEW: "I Don't Consider Them Competition"
Vince shared his thoughts on AEW during yesterday's WWE Q2 2021 earnings call.
Vince McMahon has claimed that he doesn't see All Elite Wrestling as competition in the same way as World Championship Wrestling, doing so during yesterday's WWE Q2 2021 earnings call.
The WWE Chairman and CEO spoke up during the Q&A section. When asked about AEW's recent success and whether or not WWE will look to counter Tony Khan's company, Vince said the following (h/t Figure Four Online/Wrestling Observer for the transcription):-
"It's certainly not a situation where rising tides because....that was when Ted Turner was coming after us with all of Time Warner's assets. That was a different situation. AEW is where they are. I really don't know what their plans are. All I know is what our plans are. I don't consider them competition in the way that I would consider WCW back in the day -- not anywhere near close to that."
WWE President and Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan added the following after claiming that sleep (yes, sleep) and other forms of entertainment were WWE's competition-
"If it was up to us, people could be up 24 hours a day watching content from different content providers, hopefully including ours. We don’t look at any organization particularly as competition. Yet we see everything as competitive with what we’re trying to do in terms of eyeballs."
Khan's comments, in particular, are in line with WWE's earnings call narrative on AEW since the young promotion came to life in 2019. They come at a time when AEW Dynamite is edging closer to Raw and SmackDown in several key demographics, though there's still considerable distance between the shows in overall viewership. And, of course, WWE is a money-making juggernaut, having made record profits in 2020.
Yesterday's Q2 2021 financial reports were highlighted by an increase in revenue from $223.4 million in Q2 2020 to $265.6 million this time around.