"I have more money than they do" - Tony Khan warns WWE before SmackDown goes head-on with AEW Rampage
AEW President and CEO Tony Khan spoke to the New York Post recently and was asked about SmackDown going head-to-head with the first half an hour of AEW Rampage this week.
Khan first commented on the Wednesday night wars before speaking of how both shows being on at the same time wasn't good for either the fans or for the business itself:
"It’s a little bit different than the Wednesday Night Wars because that was from the very beginning of Dynamite and we put our head down and it was an every-week thing. This seemed like pretty predatory, which is fine if that’s how you want to play it. It’s not outwardly how they’ve (WWE) shown they wanted to play it."
He continued:
"I’ve coined a phrase which is WYW, watch your wrestling. Whatever people what to watch, I want them to watch it. Unfortunately, if we are on at the same time it’s harder for people to watch their wrestling, at least live. We can take the commercials out of it. If you want to take the commercials out of it, I can do that too. It doesn’t seem very civil but I have more money than they do so I can afford to do that longer than they can. But that’s how we make money at the end of the day, so I was surprised when they took those out," said Tony Khan.
I saw you’re doing a half hour head-to-head with us. I can’t wait to finally beat your main show head-to-head. It’s been a long time coming. See you next Friday for #AEWRampage on @AEWonTNT!
WWE and AEW are set to go to war this weekend
It started off with the announcement that this week's WWE SmackDown will be two and a half hours instead of the usual two hours. The last half hour of the Blue brand, which will run commercial-free, would go head to head against the first half-hour of Rampage.
Tony Khan welcomed the challenge on Twitter before quickly announcing a special Buy-In show this week, which will be live on YouTube, opposing the second hour of SmackDown.
He has also announced two major matches for the Buy-In show - Lee Moriarty vs. Bobby Fish and Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki, the second being a dream match for many hardcore fans of pro wrestling.