For the first time in over two decades, there is a legitimate claim to having two professional wrestling shows in town. All Elite Wrestling launched in 2019 to significant fanfare, boasting the financial backing of Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan . AEW’s momentum skyrocketed in its initial years, and the company grew from being a strong alternative to actual competition to WWE, outdrawing the longtime global leader in multiple markets and defeating its shows in head-to-head ratings battles. While WWE has never outright acknowledged AEW as a competitor, stories from over the years have made it clear that they do keep tabs on the young promotion.
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WWE HQ Once Hosted AEW Dynamite Viewing Session
Titan Towers lit the fuse and brought the boom in Fall 2019.
Speaking on his podcast, current AEW Director of Business Development Jeff Jarrett recalled watching the first episode of AEW Dynamite at WWE Titan Towers, the company’s headquarters at the time, with the WWE creative team when the product launched in Fall 2019.
“I was working for WWE,” Jarrett, who served as a WWE backstage producer and member of the creative team from January 2019 until July 2021, recalled. “I wish I could recall just how late in the night we went in that creative session, but it’s one of those days where we started in the afternoon but we get called up and we’re gonna work through the evening, I guess you could say workouts had to be done and meals had to be eaten. On the second floor of the old Titan Towers, we got to gather around the TV and watch it.”
While it’s unclear as to how the rest of the WWE creative team felt about AEW Dynamite, Jarrett himself was both impressed and nostalgic.
“The freshness, obviously for me, it brought back so many memories since a non-WWE program had been on cable television in prime time. It took me back to 2006, 2007 when we (TNA) came on the air in the SpikeTV days,” Jarrett continued, alluding to his experience helping build TNA iMPACT! to a strong television product. “I was a part of ALL IN (2018) when we did Starrcast there. Boom, you fast forward and a little over a year later and they’re all there, so many people that I’ve worked with on the production side. Obviously the talent, Cody and others, the Bucks and all that.
“The excitement and knowing from the experience that we’ve all gone through, whether it was the first episode of Nitro that came on the air that began to buck the stallworth of Monday Night Raw. This was, I call it a great night. Start, came out of the gate, all the excitement. You knew from day one that man, this thing’s got some juice behind it. Knowing the financial piece of it, the talent piece of it, and the network piece of it, you knew that the ride was just beginning.”
AEW Dynamite turns five years old this week. It is 19 weeks away from surpassing the total episodes of WCW Monday Nitro, the last weekly episodic wrestling program to rival WWE programming.
