All Elite Wrestling is reigniting the ratings war with WWE. Tony Khan’s young promotion is set to bring AEW Dynamite to the Tuesday 8 PM ET time slot for a one-off this week due to a scheduling conflict in its usual time on Wednesday. This places AEW’s flagship program in the same block as WWE NXT, WWE’s developmental show featuring rising prospects in the sports-entertainment giant. Both companies are well aware of the head-to-head nature of this week’s programming and have each made efforts to supersize their shows. AEW is dubbing this edition of AEW Dynamite as “Title Tuesday,” featuring two championship contests as well as the in-ring debut of Adam Copeland (WWE’s Edge). WWE has responded to this by bringing in main roster stars like John Cena, Cody Rhodes, Asuka and Paul Heyman and has even teased an appearance from The Undertaker.
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Khan and company have been promoting this week’s AEW Dynamite heavily on social media, even announcing that the broadcast will have a pre-show and the first 30 minutes will air commercial free. WWE NXT will also begin with a commercial free first quarter.
While the efforts to counter-program have been strictly by implication thus far, both companies have been known to take slightly personal digs at one another on occasion.
Tony Khan Takes Shot at Vince McMahon
AEW’s president has fired a shot at WWE’s big boss.
Taking to Twitter, a wrestling fan responded to one of Tony Khan’s tweets by saying they will not be watching AEW Dynamite. Khan responded with a gif of AEW star Roderick Strong saying, “who gives a f–k,” to which another fan replied, “If Sir Vince McMahon said this, there would be many failed AEW fans crying non-stop and furious.”
Khan then responded to that follow-up by noting that McMahon has had no shortage of controversy in his career.
“If Sir Vince McMahon said this, it would be the least of his alleged misdeeds.”
McMahon was subject to an extensive internal investigation in 2022 after reports surfaced that he had been using company funds as hush money to pay off several women whom he had affairs with over the course of multiple decades. This led to McMahon briefly retiring from his corporate WWE positions, but he maintained shareholding power within WWE, which allowed him to return to the board of directors this past January. McMahon now serves as Executive Chairman once more.
AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT go head-to-head tonight at 8 PM ET on TBS and USA Network, respectively.
