All Elite Wrestling is being seen as the next big competition for WWE, but there may be a long time before it actually gets to that level. AEW has announced that its weekly TV show will begin airing on TNT in early October, but few other details have been revealed about it. Vince McMahon knows who they are even if he doesn’t mention them by name, and the big boss has revealed that his company isn’t going to go back to blood and guts.
For those who have watched some of AEW’s first pay-per-view events, there has been plenty of violence. Dustin and Cody Rhodes were bloodied up in their brother vs. brother battle. Let’s also not forget the unprotected chair shot that Cody took, which required immediate medical attention, as reported by The Inquisitr .
With the announcement of the TV show start date, Cody Rhodes said earlier this week that “violence that just goes hand in hand with professional wrestling is – that’s there it’s on the surface, you know what you’re getting,” as reported by The Wrap .
Knowing that AEW is not against the violence that comes with professional wrestling, WWE is not going to respond by incorporating more violence into its product. CBS reported that Vince McMahon states WWE is going to “remain in the PG environment” despite going a bit edgier.
Some fans have felt that WWE was heading back in the direction of the old-school WWF Attitude Era, but that is apparently not going to be the case. Vince said they are not going back there, and that things have changed in this day and age of professional wrestling.
While referring to WWE’s “new potential competitor” and what they’re planning to do with their TNT show, Vince said his promotion won’t stoop to that level.
“We’re not going to do blood and guts and things of that nature such [as] is being done on, perhaps, a new competitor. We’re just not going to go back to that gory crap that we’ve graduated from. It’s a more sophisticated product.”
Back in the day, TNT was the home of Monday Nitro , which was the show of WWE’s primary competition in WCW. Vince went on to buy WCW and put them out of business, but he’s familiar with TNT and he believes that the network won’t “put up with” the kind of content that AEW is promoting.
Many fans believe that another professional wrestling war is on the way with AEW’s creation earlier this year. With Vince McMahon actually referencing them when speaking of WWE, it’s hard to think otherwise.