Four score and three years ago the latest great wrestling war began on American soil.
Two companies pit their finest soldiers against the other on Wednesday nights to determine which
promotion would earn the bigger share of the wrestling viewing audience. However,
in the years that have passed since the launch of All Elite Wrestling, the war with WWE has evolved.
Now the two promotions don’t spend nearly as much time counterprogramming each other as they did in
the early days of the Wednesday Night War but the war itself is still very much alive. With
AEW continuing to gain traction and WWE continuing to sabotage their own public perception within the
wrestling community, there have still been a number of moments where the two companies have
been at odds with each other. 10 of them, in fact. Just enough for a list. How convenient is that?
I’m Pete hailing from partsFUNknown and these are 10 Times WWE & AEW went to war in 2021.
SUBSCRIBE 10. Cody Rhodes Loves A Sledgehammer
What happened to Cody Rhodes? At the start of AEW Dynamite he was the most beloved babyface
in the company. Now? Well he is the furthest thing from it. Was it his divisive Rah Rah America promo
that did it in or perhaps has his status as the former WWE guy with a chip on his shoulder been
taken over by so many talents over the past two years that it no longer makes him feel special?
You be the judge. As for Cody, however, he still loves to point out his history with the Fed,
making a pretty on the nose reference to Triple H on the December 1st episode of Dynamite. Cody
looked under the ring for some handy dandy plunder and emerged with a sledgehammer.
What could that possibly be in reference to?! Cody, of course, has been called the Triple H
of AEW very often with some fans feeling that he hasn’t put over new talent akin to the dreaded
run of Huntor The Terrible from yesteryear, despite losing to MJF, Darby Allin, Malakai Black,
the list goes on and on. Cody was quick to toss the sledgehammer aside in favour of a golden
shovel as he yelled that he was going to “lean in” to the reaction he was getting from fans.
9. Death By A Thousand References It feels weird to put one specific
jab in a promo on this list as that would hardly constitute a war, but when it happens frequently
all year, enough jabs become a talking point. Granted many of these moments have come from AEW,
such as Christian Cage telling Adam Cole that he should be used to losing on Wednesdays, a direct
shot at his role in NXT, or Don Callis mocking WWE’s no leg slapping policy, but from time to
time WWE would send jabs back the other way. Drew McIntyre made light of AEW’s infamously botched
exploding barbed wire deathmatch from Revolution, oh god let us all please forget that moment,
telling MVP on Raw that when you make a promise you can’t deliver on sparks fly and people get
disappointed. Moments like this happen regularly and while some of it is fairly trivial and should
not be taken so seriously by the fans, this is also part of the fun of having a wrestling war.
Hell, Shawn Michaels slapped a WCW sticker on a little person dressed as Bret Hart in 1997
and we certainly haven’t crossed that line yet! 8. Christian Cage Signs With AEW
One year after best friend Edge made a miraculous return from retirement at the Royal Rumble,
Christian did the same, wrestling his first match in seven years at the 2021 Rumble event.
He looked as good as he ever had and he watched as Edge won the Rumble. Surely this incredible
return could play into a fantastic storyline for WrestleMania. His best friend in the main event,
unfinished business with Big E over the Intercontinental Championship,
the possibilities were endless. That is why it was so bizarre to find out that WWE had no plans for
Christian after his return. Wot? One of the best in-ring performers of his generation with a built
in story in your hottest period of the year? No interest? “Well don’t mind if I do,” said Tony
Khan who welcomed the rechristened Christian Cage into AEW at Revolution 2021. Christian
has continued to show why WWE was foolish to pass on him, wrestling great matches regularly
including the main event of All Out against Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship.
7. This Business Isn’t Big Enough For Two Khans For years people said wrestling was run by conmen.
Now it is just run by Khan-men. While it sounds nutty now, WWE at one point made an effort to
form a working relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling as a way to keep Daniel Bryan in the
company. This relationship never materialized of course because sharing with WWE sounds like about
as much fun as shaving my taint with a cactus. WWE President Nick Khan was reportedly at the
helm of this and AEW President Tony Khan made sure to let Nick know that there would only be
one Khan with a relationship with New Japan. Many of Tony’s Twitter speeches have made light about
battles with WWE but this one was certainly the most direct as he told Nick that there was only
room for one Khan in pro wrestling. Naturally, WWE and Nick Khan would not return fire at AEW but AEW
is the one with New Japan talent on their shows. Although can you imagine Tomohiro Ishii vs. WALTER
at an NXT Takeover dear god in heaven. 6. WWE Cuts ‘Em, AEW Signs ‘Em
Boy, WWE sure released a lot of talent in 2021 didn’t they? That list is about 80 people long and
that’s just from this year let alone the dozens gone in 2020. WWE made a point to sign as much
talent as possible when AEW launched because it doesn’t matter if they want to play with this toy
as long as no one else can play with them either. Sure enough, WWE’s releases made the wrestling
free agent pool a dealer’s choice situation for AEW, with Tony Khan getting to choose which stars
he would like to bring on board. Enter the likes of Andrade El Idolo, Malakai Black, Ruby Soho,
and Bobby Fish. All of whom have been given the opportunities to put on fantastic matches that
they weren’t given on the WWE main roster. For years the theory was you didn’t want to sign too
many of WWE’s castaways but that applies much more to Val Venis beating Christopher Daniels
in 2010 TNA and less to world class talent that should never be let go over f****** budget cuts.
5. AEW New Years Smash vs. NXT New Years Evil The last real example of NXT and AEW Dynamite
putting on big specials opposite each other came on the first episodes of 2021. To kick off the
New Year, AEW put on New Years Smash while NXT aired their New Years Evil special. Both shows had
major matches on their cards. Dynamite featured a five-star main event as Kenny Omega defended the
AEW title against Rey Fenix which only served as the appetizer for the AEW debuts of Karl Anderson
and Doc Gallows. Meanwhile on NXT, Raquel Gonzalez and Rhea Ripley put on an outstanding Last Woman
Standing match which signaled the end of Ripley’s time on the brand. The main event was a rematch of
the classic Finn Balor vs. Kyle O’Reilly match from NXT Takeover 31 and overall this made for
one incredible night of wrestling. The Wednesday Night War had basically been decided but there was
still plenty of fight left in NXT at this point. Although it would only be a few more months before
NXT was moved to Tuesdays, officially ending the Wednesday Night War and leading to the beginning
of NXT 2.0 which is, well, you know. 4. Eddie Kingston Shoots On WWE
Eddie Kingston is about as outspoken as they come in wrestling. He is also about as good of
a talker as they come in wrestling. Put those two together and you have the recipe for some
very spicy post-show comments which is exactly what we got following Saturday Night Dynamite
on June 26th. Following the main event, Kingston stood in the ring with Jungle Boy, Christian Cage
and Penta El Zero Miedo. What started as a fairly by the numbers “send the crowd home happy” promo
turned into a rallying cry for the AEW fans as Kingston said “the competition sometimes doesn’t
want to hear their fans”. He said AEW listens to their fans and everyone in the locker room isn’t
doing this for a paycheck, they’re doing it for the people and to bust their asses for the love
of pro wrestling. He said you won’t see matches like Jungle Boy vs. Kenny Omega, legends who are
respected, and the heart of the AEW lockerroom “on the other channel”. You can choose to like this
style of promo or not but there is no doubt that it was effective as the entire crowd at Daily’s
Place stood on their feet and chanted AEW before going home happy. You gotta play to your audience,
and this is what this audience pays to see. 3. The Dragon & The Boom
We had an entry on this list for stars that WWE released who showed up in AEW. There is no doubt
how valuable they all are in their current roles. However, it speaks volumes when two
of the absolute top performers in the wrestling business are desired by both WWE and AEW and
choose to leave the land of sports entertainment. This is exactly what happened with Bryan Danielson
and Adam Cole. Danielson walked away from WWE after over ten years with the company and has
said many times that he loved working for the company. Yet still, he wanted to go to AEW because
it was where wrestling was at its best. With Adam Cole, WWE somehow let his contract expire
by accident and after NXT Takeover 36, Cole had decided that he was going to walk away after four
years with the promotion in favour of rejoining his friends in AEW. The craziest thing? Both of
these debuts happened on the same night. In case you need a reminder, here is Oli’s reaction.
It is one thing to be cut and find success elsewhere,
but it is something else entirely to be the place top talent are walking away from WWE for.
2. “A Less Famous Miz” Poor Miz, catching stray bullets from promos
on a completely different show. This probably could have been included in the entry about all
the jabs WWE and AEW have taken at each other but oh this is just so saucy it deserves its own. You
won’t find two wrestlers with acid tongues more than CM Punk and MJF and when you point them at
each other with microphones in their hands you better believe they are going to spit some venom.
In their recent promo duel on Dynamite, both men took shots at each other using WWE as the bullets.
MJF threw countless insults at his adversary, calling him PG Punk and saying he was second
best to the You Can’t See Me Man and the King of Kings. However, the biggest moment of the promo
came early on, with Punk saying MJF wasn’t revolutionary, he is just a less famous Miz.
He can’t say that, can he say that? The line even broke the threshold of WWE with Edge making light
of it on Raw saying people on the other show are using Miz’s name to get a cheap reaction.
Some shots are unnecessary but this is good ol fashioned proooo wrestling with the shots on
both shows feuling the respective stories they are involved in. But goodness what did Miz do?
Rampage Buy-In vs. Super SmackDown Following the end of the Wednesday
Night War it seemed like it would be a considerable amount of time before WWE and
AEW went head to head again. Tony Khan has been adamant that he won’t compete with Raw because
he won’t run against the NFL on Mondays but what about Fridays? Well, with AEW Rampage making its
debut in August, SmackDown was merely sitting at the next lunch table over in the cafeteria
and it would only take one of them to bump the other’s tray to start a fight. On October 15th,
WWE aired Super SmackDown, featuring an extra half hour of TV. Meanwhile, AEW pulled out all
the stops, putting on a Rampage Buy In lasting an extra hour and featuring Tempest’s wet dream of
Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki. This was the biggest head-to-head wrestling event in years,
even if SmackDown and Rampage were only competing on TV for a half hour. Tony Khan
threw down the gauntlet for the night and while Rampage did not come close to beating SmackDown
in overall viewership, they were able to win the night in the key demos. Make what you will
of the ratings and the viewership but this was the biggest example to date of WWE and
AEW going to war with one another and it certainly doesn’t feel like the last time either.