Steve Austin Calls AEW A "Good Thing", Citing Competition, Jobs

Stone Cold Steve Austin may have a long association with WWE, but he's all for All Elite Wrestling being a viable competitor.

Speaking with Nick Hausman of Wrestling Inc, Austin was asked about AEW, and the "Texas Rattlesnake" was quite adamant that AEW's mere existence can't be anything but a good thing for the industry.

"Man, I love it," Austin stated. "I think it's competition by proxy just because they're wrestling, WWE's wrestling, but I don't think they're directly trying to compete. But, in essence, they are. I love it because it gives more people within the industry jobs, it gives more people a chance to work, and it makes WWE -- it forces them to push the envelope rather than just sit back and just push out content.

"Competition makes everybody better, I'll bottom line it like that without going into minutiae and details."

He added, "The product is better because you're forced to say, 'Hey man, what are these cats doing over here? Pretty good stuff. What are we doing? We need to up it a little bit.'

"AEW is a good thing. It's a good thing for everybody, including WWE."

(Credit to Fightful for transcription)