5 Changes that WWE have been forced to make since AEW's launch
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, professional wrestling was enjoying one of the most intriguing periods in its recent history. Part of the reason for this was that WWE no longer sat on top of the industry unchallenged.
For years, Vince McMahon's promotion had held a monopoly over the wrestling business in the United States. In truth, WWE had not been truly challenged for their number one spot since WCW went under back in 2001.
All this changed last year, when multi-millionaire businessman Tony Khan - alongside The Elite - announced that he was set to launch a new wrestling promotion. With Khan at the helm, All Elite Wrestling possessed both the contacts and the budget to make significant waves in the wrestling industry. A little over a year into its existence, AEW has certainly done just that.
The first major statement that AEW made was to negotiate a prime time weekly television deal with TNT - the former home of WCW Nitro. This was a far stronger television presence than any other wrestling company had been able to secure in decades. Tellingly, the deal was also a financially lucrative one for AEW, meaning that the promotion's chances of success were already high - even before they had officially run a show.
Make no mistake, at this point WWE recognized that potential threat posed by AEW and were immediately forced to alter the way in which they operated. No longer able to coast as the industry leader, WWE has made many changes in response to the existence of AEW. Here are 5 of the biggest.
#5 Creating a third prime time television show in NXT
One of the most immediate changes that WWE made in response to the emergence of AEW was to launch a third weekly prime time television show. In August last year, WWE announced that NXT would be joining RAW and SmackDown as part of the WWE's prime time television portfolio.
It was, however, the timeslot in which NXT was to air that would be most newsworthy. It was revealed that the Black & Gold brand would present a live two-hour episode on the USA Network each Wednesday at 8pm - and it was no coincidence that the show would be going head-to-head during that period with AEW Dynamite on TNT.
Now, NXT had been a quality product for years whilst streaming exclusively as a one-hour program on the WWE Network. The brand certainly deserved some increased exposure. It is undeniable, though, that WWE engineered NXT's television deal with the USA Network in order to ensure that they could oppose AEW's programming on TNT.
Adding a third live television show each week is no small matter, but WWE were determined to make the change in the hope that they could stop AEW from gaining momentum as an alternative product.