Tony Khan Was 'Up Against The Wall' The One Week WWE NXT Beat AEW Dynamite
AEW Dynamite competed with WWE NXT for 76 weeks
Aug 27, 2021
Tony Khan says he always considered WWE NXT competition for AEW Dynamite on Wednesday nights and was 'up against the wall' when his brand was defeated for one week in late 2019.
WWE NXT and AEW Dynamite competed head-to-head on Wednesdays between October 2019 and April 2021, with the All Elite Wrestling show proving the victor in terms of regularly achieving a higher viewing figure.
Khan says the battle with WWE's black-and-gold brand was the hardest he's ever been in but, despite saying AEW was the highest rated show in 75 out of the 76 weeks, was livid the one week WWE beat them.
Speaking to Le Batard and Friends – South Beach Sessions, Khan said: "What would you call NXT? Their show went head-to-head against me for over a year, before they had to move it. That’s just the truth. That’s a black and white statistic. I don’t want to say anything bad about anybody. That’s just a fact. That was a fight. That was the hardest fight I’ve been through.
"I mentioned the end of 2019 and trying to get more organized, there was one week at the end of 2019 where they actually won the demographic, and I think it ended up being in 76 weeks head-to-head, we won 75 to one and the one week they got it, I was up against the wall.
"And that’s when I was talking about getting reorganized, changing things around, making sure that 2020 was going to be a lot stronger than the end of 2019, and it was. We were in a fight.
"I think we are still in a fight in many ways, but I also don’t think it needs to be a hostile thing where you can’t support both companies because I never want it to be something where a fan feels like they should only support one or the other."
H/T Wrestling Inc.