Paul Wight doesn’t think AEW should be measured against WWE like they’re two companies that started from the same place. After spending more than 20 years helping build WWE, Wight says AEW is still trying to establish itself globally—and claims WWE’s dominance has even affected where AEW can run shows.
Speaking to Inside the Ring, Wight pushed back on direct comparisons between the two promotions. He lived through WWE’s ratings wars, the Attitude Era, downturns in the business and the company’s growth into what it is today.
“I helped build the company for 20-plus years, and I mean build it, and gone through rating wars and Attitude Era and when the business went down for a while and all the things that went through, you know, from the territories and stuff.”
After seeing that evolution firsthand, Wight believes AEW still has considerable room to grow: “I also see that same potential with AEW.” For Wight, the biggest difference is time.
AEW has only existed for around seven years, while WWE has spent decades establishing its position around the world. He pointed toward AEW returning to Wembley Stadium as part of that ongoing process rather than evidence that the company has already caught WWE.
“I mean, our company’s only been around, what, seven years? So we’re still building. We’re still building a global impact. I mean, you know, we’re going back to Wembley. That’s a huge stadium for us to fill, to put asses in seats. And we’re building that relationship in London and UK, and that’s going to grow.”
Then Wight got considerably more pointed about WWE’s position in the wrestling business.
“You can’t really compare logistically with a company that’s had 40 years of dominance because they didn’t have any competition, to somebody that—where competition was so thoroughly snuffed out.”
Wight also claimed that dominance has created obstacles for AEW that fans don’t necessarily see. According to him, there have been buildings AEW believed it could fill but couldn’t run because of contractual agreements involving WWE. Wight claimed those agreements prevented other wrestling events from taking place within 90 days before or after WWE ran the venue.
“There were buildings that we couldn’t wrestle in in AEW that we could fill because there were contract agreements between them and WWE—there was no wrestling 90 days before, no wrestling 90 days after.”
Wight spent more than two decades on WWE’s side of the wrestling business. Now that he’s experienced AEW trying to build itself from the other side, he doesn’t believe comparing a seven-year-old promotion directly to a company with decades of dominance tells the entire story.
What do you think of Paul Wight’s claim about WWE-related venue restrictions and his argument that AEW can’t fairly be compared directly to WWE? Let us know in the comments below.
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