In an interview with Justin Barrasso of SI.com, Steve Austin commented on the NXT vs. AEW battle:
“Without competition, who knows what would have happened in my career—who knows what will come out of Wednesday nights, but I believe in competition,” said Austin. “I know AEW is doing their thing and they say they’re not competition, and WWE might say it’s not competition, but if it’s on across from each other, it’s competition.”
“I remember when WCW’s Nitro kicked our ass for two years in the ‘Monday Night Wars.’ I couldn’t believe it, I thought our show was better, but they kept winning. Finally, we started turning the tide when everybody got so hot. The fact that we had competition, man, that made everybody push the envelope. I certainly wasn’t afraid to push the envelope, and I did. I’m thankful for the ‘Monday Night Wars.’ They helped define me. They helped Vince, and it helped us go out on a limb with some of the crazy stuff we did in our feud that became water-cooler talk and transcend the business.”
