Since AEW debuted in 2019, WWE has taken steps to slow their expansion, such as scheduling NXT premium live events against AEW shows. This was the case this past Sunday, when AEW held Double or Nothing, its biggest event of the year, while WWE held its NXT Battleground event.
NXT was also moved from the WWE Network to the USA Network as a two-hour program, made live, and began to compete against AEW Dynamite. NXT was ultimately moved from Wednesday nights to Tuesday nights by WWE.
In their lawsuit against WWE, MLW claimed that Triple H attempted to persuade Madison Square Garden to cancel the April 2019 ROH-NJPW G1 Supercard event. Now, it’s said that WWE is attempting to restrict when and where AEW holds its events.
According to Dave Meltzer’s report in the most recent Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE has included some interesting clauses in its agreements with venues.
Meltzer wrote, “there is an interesting note that in arenas that do rent to both AEW and WWE, WWE has put clauses in its deals that AEW can’t run a certain number of weeks before or after the WWE show, and also that AEW and the arena can’t announce the show or sell tickets until after the WWE show has taken place.”
