The Toronto Star recently put out an article taking a look at the ongoing competition between WWE and AEW, with the story showing how close the two promotions are in the key demographics between TSN and Sportsnet360 in Canada. WWE directly contributed to the story by taking a shot at their rival and criticizing a recent match that took place on AEW Rampage.
The match in question was the tag team street fight between Tay Conti, Anna Jay, The Bunny, and Penelope Ford from the December 31st edition of Rampage, which ended with all four competitors getting busted open. WWE writes, ““If you look at the gory self-mutilation that bloodied several women in the December 31 event on TNT, it quickly becomes clear that these are very different businesses,” WWE stated. “We had an edgier product in the ‘Attitude’ era and in a 2022 world, we don’t believe that type of dangerous and brutal display is appealing to network partners, sponsors, venues, children, or the general public as a whole.”
AEW President Tony Khan was also interviewed for the article. While he did not comment on WWE’s criticism he did explain why he believes AEW has closed the gap.
“The plan was to put on the best wrestling show on television. When we started, we had a great roster and a lot of great people but there was more parity in the world of wrestling in terms of where people were signed. Did I expect that we would be competitive with the company that was number one in many of those metrics? Yeah, I did, and it’s gratifying that we have been.”
You can read the full story here.