"It's just a part of what we are" - Tony Khan details AEW firing shots at WWE during their weekly programming
AEW President Tony Khan has admitted to why his company takes so many shots at WWE on their weekly programming.
Since its inception in 2019, AEW has not been afraid to poke the proverbial bear regarding its verbal barbs directed at their biggest rivals.
Whether it is Chris Jericho calling out WWE's "bad creative," Eddie Kingston claiming that you aren't going to find the level of wrestling AEW puts on over on "the other channel," or any of the bars that Max Caster spits regularly, All Elite Wrestling isn't afraid to take shots at their competition.
Max Caster just called out Bryan Danielson on his veganism, cucumber, eggs, Brie Bella's reality show and Johnny Ace all in 4 lines. Master of rap game.
But why do they do it? Speaking to Ariel Helwani, Tony Khan explained that it was all part of a strategy proposed by TV executives to make them Pepsi for WWE's Coca-Cola.
"A challenger brand I learned then, three years ago, is not the industry leader, but it is also not a niche brand. It is not that. It is a big company. It is Pepsi [to Coca-Cola]. It is Burger King [to McDonald’s]. What will get Burger King marketing? What is Burger King marketing? Basically a lot of it is ‘hey McDonalds s**ks guys’. So for AEW, it’s just part of what we are. We’re a challenger brand. There’s no reason to pretend we’re not. That’s what you are. Embrace it," said Khan. [H/T WrestleTalk]
Tony Khan even went as far as to say that the "challenger brand" identity came from a Warner Media executive, giving him a book on how to be such a brand:
“I’ve said it before, I consider all wrestling as competition. Some people ask me why I’ll talk about other wrestling companies, especially WWE, and I’ll tell you. It was literally a book handed to me over three years ago before the launch of Dynamite by Warner Media at the time before it was Warner Bros Discovery. It was telling me what our place [was] already because Dynamite hadn’t launched, but we had carved out a space in the pay-per-view business. They handed me a book. It was [about] how to be a challenger brand. This is what you are," Khan added. [H/T WrestleTalk]
Tony Khan has made AEW the closest competition to WWE since the Monday Night Wars in the 1990s
For many fans, it seemed as if it would only be a matter of time before a promotion broke the stranglehold that WWE had on the business since the fall of WCW in 2001.
That's exactly what happened when Tony Khan and The Elite founded AEW in 2019, with Khan's company being the biggest challenger to WWE's throne since the turn of the millennium.
3 years ago today…
#WWENXT went live on the USA Network full time
#AEWDynamite aired its first episode on TNT
What a night. https://t.co/ucK4uAiKZb
AEW Dynamite already sent NXT packing during their "Wednesday Night Wars" between October 2019 and April 2021, with Dynamite even beating Monday Night RAW in the key 18-49 demographic on multiple occasions.
Now that Triple H is in charge of creative direction in the Stamford-based company, there could very well be shots thrown in the opposite direction soon. Until then, expect more WWE slander every Wednesday night on AEW Dynamite.
Do you agree with what Tony Khan had to say? Let us know in the comments section down below!