Vince McMahon Allegedly Feels Threatened By AEW

Vince McMahon has been on top of the pro wrestling world for over thirty years. There was a time when he had to battle to stay on top, and twenty years after the Monday Night Wars, he finds a new large opponent in his pro wrestling space.

AEW announced their TNT debut for October 2nd, this was followed by WWE moving NXT to the USA Network starting two weeks prior. WWE might like to say that AEW is trying to counter NXT, but that is a hard story to get behind.

While speaking on Grillin JR, the WWE Hall Of Famer said Vince McMahon feels threatened with AEW.

I’m not surprised, knowing Vince as well as I do and working with him so closely. Being laid back and letting AEW grow freely and independently was never going to happen.” 

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“He feels threatened, for some crazy reason. That’s interesting to me. I saw on Twitter, ‘AEW started this because Cody busted up a throne.’ I can see where the point is made. But I don’t know there was ever any gunshots at each other. But it didn’t surprise me. Competition is good. We’ll be very happy to compete. We knew it was going to be a competition all long and that it wasn’t going to be an easy road. At no time in my short experience with Tony Khan have I heard one person ever say, ‘We’re gonna get WWE on this one.’ It’s brought up online and in the wrestling media.”

“When Vince moved NXT off his own Network, it tells us all we need to know. Is WWE aware and cautious about the development of AEW? The answer is obviously ‘Yes.’ Should they be? I don’t really know. No one is going to supplant WWE as the number one sports entertainment company in the world.”

“The goal of AEW is to provide a great product to lapsed fans and others with an athletically based, old-school oriented product. And to make a profit for the Khan family. It’s all about us. Not about them. It should motivate all of our guys. They should see this as a competitive challenge. All I give a damn about is how well our show is going to be at All Out. Bring it on. Let’s compete. Hopefully, we won’t break down into some Mickey Mouse, infantile bullshit on either side.”

We will have to see how things play out. Vince McMahon has a lot of resources and tricks up his sleeve. Perhaps AEW might have poked the bear too hard, but they still have an ocean of passionate fans willing to help keep them afloat. Let’s just see what Vince McMahon might do to try and poke holes in their boat.

Thanks to Fightful for the quote