The WWE and AEW have ranked first and second for professional wrestling in the United States over the past three years. The new AEW emerged successfully in May 2019. WWE has been around for decades, making it the biggest wrestling promotion in the U.S today
On “Insight with Chris Van Vliet”, former six-time WWE Tag Team Champion and WWE Hall of Famer Road Dogg commented on whether or not there is a war occurring between AEW and WWE.
“The boys” aren’t fighting each other so much as they’re facing an uphill battle against WWE. “…I feel like the Wrestling business is not going at it like a war,” Dogg said. “It’s more like there’s another show on, a competitor.”
WWE and AEW went head to head on Wednesday nights from Oct. 2019 all the way up until April 2021. TNT and USA Network ran AEW: Dynamite and WWE’s NXT, respectively, with each program airing at 8 P.M. — 10 P.M., with AEW: Dynamite winning the rating war by typically having higher ratings than WWE’s “NXT.”
On April 13th, 2021, “NXT” made the switch to Tuesday nights, deeming it a night that no other wrestling program would compete with. WWE has not had a consistent matchup with AEW since.
The last real rating war was during the Attitude Era when WWE and WCW broadcast the same shows on Monday night, resulting in the significant Monday Night Wars. WWE took a lead in the ratings for 83 weeks but ended up losing the war. Just a short time later, WCW would be bought out by Vince McMahon of WWE.
