WWE Senior Vice President of Live Events “Road Dogg” Brian James recently spoke on his podcast, “Oh You Didn’t Know,” about a variety of professional wrestling topics including the 2019 Royal Rumble. During the same month, AEW was officially announced as WWE’s alternative. Road Dogg discussed his feelings about AEW when it first started.
“It was a period where, like, ‘Oh, okay. We’re not the only ones anymore. We’re not such Lone Ranger’s anymore.’ When they started getting hot for a little while, it got even scarier a little bit. It was like, ‘Oh, they are giving the fans what they want.’ The Internet wrestling community thinks they’re the only fans out there and I think the ratings prove there are more than just that on a weekly basis. They started getting great. They were giving everybody exactly what they wanted, but then they realized they have to do it 52 times a year and so now they’re catching up. I thought there was reason for concern. It’s not concerned like, ‘Oh God. There goes the neighborhood. Roll up the shutters.’ It’s just like, ‘Okay, we ain’t the only player in the game anymore.’ I think you fast forward five years and my feeling has reversed and I think the feeling has reversed that there is only one player in the game and the other player is in rehab.”
The team of Bobby Roode and Chad Gable:
“They were really, really good together. I would say glorious. What’s great is Bobby is still with the company and is doing some behind the scenes work and Chad Gable to me is in his prime. His resurgence of his wrestling ability in my mind over the period of the storyline with Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship just reminded me personally of what a hell of an athlete and a model American that Chad Gable is. I know I’m going to throw up, but I’m being dead serious. He’s a great human, a great employee, a great wrestler, like, he might be the real John Cena. He’s just a really good guy and he really works hard.”
You can check out the complete podcast via AdFreeShows.com.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
