Despite WWE saying they don’t consider AEW a competition on several occasions, they’re not ignoring their presence, at least behind the scenes. They’ve been keeping up with the happenings on the other side and analyzing their activities, according to a new report.
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Report Says WWE Has A Dedicated Staff To Watch AEW & Give Analytics To The Higher Ups In The Company
According to a report from WrestleVotes on Fightful Select, it seems WWE has people employed to keep an eye on the competition.
Here’s what the report said:
“There’s people in Stamford with AEW action figures on their desks. People’s jobs is to watch AEW programming and report into analytics and different departments on what’s going on in AEW. That is a fact. It’s not a hush-hush thing.”
Many wouldn’t consider this surprising news, considering AEW is by far the biggest competition to WWE, at least in North America. This happens in almost every business where they keep close tabs on their competition in order to improve their own product or fill some market gaps.
AEW has been in existence since 2019. Stars like Cody Rhodes and Chris Jericho were among the first few names to join the promotion.
Over the years, the company has grown even more. They renewed their media rights deal with Warner Bros Discovery in October 2024, and WrestleVotes reported it’s valued at $555 million over three years till 2027 (with an optional fourth year option).
Also read: David Finlay Explains Why He Chose AEW Over WWE, Says The Choice Was “Easy” For Him
WWE Has Counter-Programmed AEW Many Times Before
In the past, WWE has tried to compete with AEW by putting their own shows on the same date as AEW. One example of this would be Wrestlepalooza, which took place the same day as All Out on September 20, 2025.
There was another report that WWE wanted to put on Saturday Night’s Main Event featuring John Cena’s retirement match head‑to‑head with AEW Worlds End on December 27. But this didn’t happen, as Peacock was already airing an NFL game that day.
Some months back, AEW president Tony Khan also commented on WWE counter‑programming them, and he said it didn’t bother him.
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Main image credit: Imago
Ishaan Sharma has been following wrestling ever since he was 8. That was over a decade ago. He loves to write about this pretend sport and has worked with online publications such as Sportskeeda and TheSportster, where he shared his insights about the wrestling business.