During an interview with Richard Deitsch on the Sports Media podcast, Paul Heyman talked about how he views AEW in comparison to WWE:
“Well, first of all, I have no problem putting AEW over if AEW does things that are worth being put over. I don’t live in a bubble. I would also offer to anybody that wonders why I would be so willing to put over the competition. If you look at WrestleMania and you look at the fact that over the course of these two days, WWE has sold more tickets than any…I have to call the two nights one event, we sold more tickets to this event, this WrestleMania than any other event in WWE history. Combine the two nights. With that in mind, and the spectacle that this show will be, and you combine that with the worldwide publicity that it’s going to garner and the fact that the entire industry is focused on what’s going to happen at WrestleMania and therefore what comes out of WrestleMania, I would argue the case that I could sit here and praise AEW all day long.
They can’t match what we’re about to do next week. Until they are in a position to match what we do next weekend, I’m not that concerned with praising the competition because they are still a long way away from what we do and our level of success, and our market dominance. That being said, do I watch AEW? of course I do, but I also watch everything else that’s out there as well. If I can get my hands on Buenos Aires Championship wrestling, I’d watch it. if I can get my hands on Antarctica All-Star Wrestling, if there is such a thing, I’d watch it. I watch anything to do with this industry. It’s why I had eyes on Gable Stevenson when he was in the tenth grade.”
