AEW CEO and General Manager Tony Khan addressed long-running speculation about whether WWE intentionally counterprograms against AEW events. Appearing on The Ariel Helwani Show, Khan was asked directly if he believes WWE schedules programming to compete with AEW — and he didn’t hesitate to confirm it.
“I do think it’s done on purpose, and I understand it, and it’s part of wrestling,” Khan said. “And I think we’ve seen a lot of it, but I think other wrestling promotions that have been the challenger wrestling brand in our lifetime have seen a lot of it.”
Khan compared AEW’s situation to the territorial battles of the past, noting that this type of behavior is far from new in the industry.
“Jim Crockett promotions, which was the forerunner to WWE, saw a lot of this,” he continued. “And Jim Crockett promotions ended up having to sell the company to Ted Turner, who then made a great run. It took a while. And really, if you look Ted Turner took over at the start of 1989 and the strongest run came over six years later, almost seven years later, it started, really, when business peaked and took off their peak years.”
Khan said that being a challenger in the wrestling landscape requires massive investment and risk-taking — something AEW embraced during its start-up phase. Because of this understanding of wrestling history, he feels better equipped to navigate today’s competitive environment.
The scheduling conflicts Khan referenced are well-known. In recent years, WWE has regularly placed events such as Saturday Night’s Main Event and NXT Heatwave directly against major AEW shows like All Out and Forbidden Door.
Despite that, Khan remains unfazed, “I do think that we’ve seen that kind of counter programming in those things, and I understand, and looking back at wrestling history, kind of expect that and frustrate you,” Khan said. “I think it’s okay, because for us, it’s always worked out, and we’re in a great position. So it hasn’t ever been a thing where it’s cost us anything. And even when you do something like AEW All In Texas, where we do the show in the afternoon, it really worked out for us great. And it was one of the best days in the history of the company. I think that it’s something that is a part of the wrestling business, and I definitely don’t take it personally.”
