The Phantom Rant: Thought’s on yet another AEW vs. WWE battle

Greetings conversationalist’s all across the world wide web. It is I, the one and only “Phantom Lord” Joseph Davis and this is The Phantom Rant. As always I am coming to you from New York City and it’s a somber time with the twenty fifth anniversary of the September 11th attacks having just passed last week. Those were dark times back then, but we’ve managed to come back stronger than ever. Thinking back to back then, the WWF (at the time) was a great escape to what was going on a few miles away from my house. During that time, the Invasion was in full effect with WCW/ECW vs. WWF. Of course in retrospect the whole Invasion angle was terrible and I’m sure more than a few of us wish it never happened. It’s funny how when you fast forward twenty five years later and the WWE bought Triple A and they’re running it how they should have ran WCW back in 2001. They’re almost a separate entity and allowed to breath and develop on their own.

Now granted we didn’t have this thing called Youtube in 2001 that you could put the shows up on. But I think the WWF could have got WCW tv clearance back then if they really tried to. But Vince McMahon was determined to make an example out of WCW for daring to go up against him for all those years and well we got what we got. Triple A though is being allowed to succeed and that’s a good thing for wrestling in general. Triplemania 34 Night 2 which I watched was an outstanding show and I was so happy to see El Grande Americano win the Triple A Mega Championship. It’s amazing how something that was supposed to be a joke has turned into what it is now. It’s amazing what competent writing can do for someone.

Speaking of competent writing, RAW the other night was by far the best RAW in ages. Aided greatly by a crowd that was on fire for everything that was going on in front of them. I don’t think this episode of RAW would have come off quite so well had it been somewhere in front of a dead crowd in the states. Roman Reigns for all the crap he gets for being boring and predictable in the ring…well, he had his working shoes on Monday night. I jumped out of my seat twice when Penta hit the Mexican Destroyer on him both times. While Penta didn’t win, it still was a damn good match and easily will be a match of the year candidate when all the awards for the 2026 year come out.

As we descend into the Autumn of 2026 (well up here in the Northern hemisphere), the war between AEW and the WWE continues to heat up and once again the WWE is going head to head with a big AEW PPV. On September 27th both AEW and WWE will be in the same general area of greater Chicago going up against each other with competing shows. Only thing is the WWE Show which is a super show featuring talent from WWE/AAA/NXT might not be broadcast live.

If that’s the case one of a two things might be happening. One, this is something they’re gonna broadcast on that Club WWE thing. Or Two…they’re just running a show for the sake of running a show to screw with AEW. Either way they don’t really care about the WWE show. It’s just a pawn in the game of life against AEW. Well, AEW’s show sold out so even if this WWE Supershow does well it won’t matter because AEW can report they had a sellout crowd. So, even though this might be a glorified house show for the WWE, AEW has won the night even if the WWE decides to do nothing with this show in the live broadcast sense.

I was talking to a friend about this column earlier and they said the WWE should not even dignify AEW exists. The more they do stuff like this where they compete up against AEW they make AEW seem more important than they are. I mean when it comes to it, AEW has like half the viewership of the WWE on a good week. There’s no real reason why the WWE should be running shows up against AEW. This is nothing new though because it’s a tactic they have employed for the last Forty five years or so.

If someone has a big show the WWE will run up against them. NWA had Starrcade…so the WWF created Survivor Series and essentially blackmailed the cable companies to picking them over the other. If you don’t pick us…you’re not getting Wrestlemania. Well, Wrestlemania is a huge ticket item so of course they were gonna choose them over the other guys.

The WWE has always had this bully mentality. There’s plenty of room for AEW and other companies to co-exist in this world. But the WWE is all “we must destroy them”. That’s why I’m honestly surprised they’re running Triple A the way that they are. They could have pillaged the company and hoarded the top talent and the video vaults. But they aren’t doing that. I guess it’s one thing to own a company and another to let it just exist on it’s own terms.

In the end I don’t think it will matter what the WWE does on All Out weekend. Show the show on youtube…don’t…show it somewhere else…doesn’t matter. AEW’s All Out will do good for AEW and that’s all that matters.

On the plus side for the WWE, I do love that Sami Zayn has been redeemed and is the WWE Champion once again. Whether the WWE only put the belt on him because they didn’t want to do a Roman vs. CM Punk match at Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia is up for debate…assuming Sami can even hold the title for that long. But some in the wrestling business think Sami is not good for business. I think they are wrong. I personally believe a good heel as champion is better than a babyface who destroys everyone in his path. I like the chase and Smackdown has a whole crop of guys who will make for great chasers for Sami’s title. Though we have to get passed Money in the Bank in October and see what happens then with that.

That is it for this week. As always you can leave feedback down below, over on Twitter or email me directly at phantomlordnyc@gmail.com