Paul Heyman: AEW Have An 'Us Vs. Them' Mentality

Much has been made of wrestling companies watching each other during times of competition, and it is no different now, with WWE and AEW clearly keeping an eye on one another.

However, far from the weekly acts of sabotage like those between WWE and WCW during the Monday Night Wars, the rivalry between WWE and AEW is a completely different beast, with several in WWE saying that competition is welcome and good for business, including Paul Heyman. 

The former ECW head was asked his thoughts on AEW by Ariel Helwani on BT Sport, with Heyman saying, “They are viable. They are a viable entity. God bless them for being there.”

Heyman was further asked for his thoughts on AEW:

"I'm not the audience,” stated Heyman. “My personal opinion on their product, if I were to sit here and go, 'My God, they are great,' who cares what I think? It's just a personal opinion. They are not geared towards me. If I went, 'Oh my God, they suck, they're horrible,' I don't think they should care about that either. When Dana White gave his opinion on WWE and it wasn't flattering, I was asked about it, and I went, 'And?' Who gives a f***? I don't think AEW should give a f*** what I think about them. They should care what the fans think, what their audience and the potential audience thinks about them. 'Here is who we have, we need to super-serve them and make them continue to be loyal to us and we need to expand that base. We need to take that person and lure them in. We need to find people who love WWE and lure them to our tribe, and we need to find people who have never seen sports entertainment/pro wrestling/combat sports and lure them onto our show for whatever reason we can justify them to pay to see our product.' That should be their mission. What Paul Heyman thinks of them should be of no concern.”

AEW have clearly positioned themselves as an alternative, and in someways an ‘underdog’ compared to WWE. Heyman did this with ECW in the 90s, and some have claimed an ECW vibe exists within AEW.

"Yes and no," replied Heyman if AEW is similar to ECW. "Yes, because of the 'Us vs. Them' mentality. It's a great marketing device. It works. Do I see the comparisons between the two promotions and business? I don't think we could be further apart in what ECW was and who AEW is, which is no knock towards them, probably, over-complimentary towards them. We're two totally different entities. The similarities are the Us vs. Them tribalism, which is a conscious marketing tool and one that is, in some years, very heart felt, and works on a big level.”

But do WWE keep an especially close eye on AEW?

"We're not really sitting here going, 'if someone is watching on two television sets, what do you think is going on on the other channel while this pre-tape airs?’” Heyman admitted. “Usually, we're doing stuff live and there is a whole different pressure to do network television when you're live. We're not worrying about what the other guy is doing. That's the trap. Now you're counter-programming. We're worried about our own programming. Plus, we're the guys to catch. We're the brand. You have to come to us, beat us, take from us, cut into our market share. We're not looking to cut into anybody else's market share, we're looking to defend our own. We're not worried, as talent, what the other guy is doing. Do we watch? Sure. Should we? Absolutely.”

H/T: Fightful