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Vince McMahon and WWE have a reputation for doing business in a cut-throat manner - and a well deserved one, at that. But, from a Public Relations standpoint, they certainly seem to know how and when to say the right stuff. They've been doing this for a while, after all.
The day after AEW successfully premiered their new weekly show on TNT, WWE released the following statement out to the press (h/t to PWInsider):
“Congratulations to AEW on a successful premiere. The real winners of last night's head-to-head telecasts of NXT on USA Network and AEW on TNT are the fans, who can expect Wednesday nights to be a competitive and wild ride as this is a marathon, not a one-night sprint.”
It's not too difficult to infer that the "marathon, not a... sprint" comment is in regard to the early reports of AEW's higher ratings when compared to those of NXT's full 2-hour premiere on USA. By all accounts, both shows were excellent, but the WWE has a point here: it was, essentially, the first show in a lot of ways for both brands. Also, there's a lot of WWE programming on TV this week.
From a PR standpoint, in any case, it's a wise move by the company, showing that they're taking AEW seriously as a competitor without admitting "defeat", if that even is such a thing in this case. Yeah, TV ratings, there's that but, still... it's television. Anyway...
What do you think of WWE's statement? Right move? Does it seem sincere? Is it weird they didn't mention the name of the show, or was that smart? Sound off in the comments section below and let's get a conversation started.
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