MR. TITO: Despite Recent Wrestlemania 41 & Rock Turbulence, WWE is FAR SUPERIOR than AEW
Last night at the NFL Draft, the Khan family were the laughing stock of the entire event when their Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team traded up from the 5th drafting position to the 2nd position. To move up just 3 positions, the Jaguars gave up their first round pick for 2025 at #5, their first round pick for 2026, and their second round pick for 2025, along with swapping picks during the fourth round of this year. To barely move up in the 2025 NFL draft to secure an earlier spot, the Jags sacrificed 3 premier pick spots (2 firsts, 1 second).
And for what? To select Travis Hunter from Colorado, a two-way player.
By the way, Hunter’s quarterback, Shedeur Sanders, was NOT selected during the first round. The other 31 NFL teams, notably about 5-10 who are kinda desperate at Quarterback, passed on Sanders who threw for over 4,000 yards and had 37 touchdowns in just 13 games.
Why? Because other teams are smart and they realize that Colorado, led by Deion Sanders, played in the very WEAK Big 12 conference that no longer has anchors such as Texas or Oklahoma lurking there.
During 2024, the Jacksonville Jaguars were 24th in Offense while their Defense was 27th. In theory, they are hoping that Travis Hunter, a two-way player at Colorado, could help the offense as a Wide Receiver and the defense as a Cornerback. But that’s in THEORY… The NFL isn’t like college, where every team has legitimate professionals as quick and as athletic as you are. There are bigger, faster, stronger Wide Receivers to cover just as there are bigger, stronger, faster secondary players covering you as well. To assume that he’ll be the “Otani of the NFL” is insane, especially with a league with an average career-span of 3.3 years.
But to just move up 3 spots, while giving up your pick and then next year’s first round pick plus this year’s second round pick was utterly insane. When you are in the 20s in BOTH categories, you need DEPTH and having those picks early in each round (Jags will suck this year, guaranteed, to give them an early pick next year) can help build your team with fresh talent and cheaply as well without overpaying for free agents.
REMEMBER, this is the team who hired Urb Meyer as their Coach. They are also the team who saw how badly Trent Baalke mismanaged the San Francisco 49ers and thought to themselves “yeah, let’s hired that guy to be our GM”. Now, they have hired a younger coach who has just 1 year of experience as an Offensive Coordinator in a good system where every coordinator succeeds and chose him to be their head coach. On top of that, they replaced Baalke with a 34 year old kid named James Gladstone and he’s the one who cooked up this trade deal that may literally save Cleveland’s franchise.
The Khan’s soccer club also has many, many issues…
And YET, WWE fans are repeatedly told that the WWE is the wrestling promotion of dysfunction, not the “great” All Elite Wrestling (AEW) operated by a highly immature Tony Khan.
Oh no, two grown-ups like the Rock and Triple H are having disagreements on creative. Oh my, what is WWE to do?
Yeah, you know what they did? Still had a good Wrestlemania event that made lots of money and then CRUSHED IT on the Monday Night RAW following Wrestlemania. In just ONE NIGHT, the “dysfunctional” WWE repaired confidence in its fanbase.
AEW? They STILL haven’t recovered from AEW All Out 2022, the night that CM Punk shot from the press scrum and then the Young Bucks tried to invade his locker room for a fight.
WWE’s biggest problem is that the Rock suddenly got popular in Hollywood again. Oh no, Rock was suddenly unavailable to work the WWE schedule or Wrestlemania this year. What will they do? Oh wait, WWE has roster depth of REAL drawing superstars. And John Cena’s star power is pretty damn big as a part-time veteran and Cena’s heel angle helped boom attendance in Las Vegas by about 15,000 (from 47,000 to 62,000+). Furthermore, everybody is BUZZING about the angle that went down in Night #1’s main event of Seth Rollins, CM Punk, and Roman Reigns.
You see, AEW wishes it had a creative force like Paul Heyman who can not only help with Creative backstage, but then go out there and perform. Almost anything that Heyman touches turns to gold. Now, along with Seth Rollins, Heyman gets to help Bron Breakker, a second-generational wrestler with him being the son of Rick Steiner.
Yeah, Charlotte vs. Tiffany didn’t quite work out well at Wrestlemania, but damn, that Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley, and Bianca Belair match was fire! Does AEW have any female talent that’s even remotely close to the WWE roster? Hell, do they have anyone as good as the NXT talent? Holy cow…
Say, why are Penta and Rey Fenix in WWE? Weren’t they just in AEW?
How about the WWE purchasing AAA from Mexico? Didn’t AEW have business with them, yet they open their doors and assets to the WWE? That’s fascinating.
Oh no, two alpha males like the Rock and Triple H maybe sometimes butt heads creatively on the direction of WWE’s product. At least WWE has alpha males in their locker room, you know, like REAL MEN who take charge and be the ruler of other men and women? What do you have, AEW? You have Tony Khan and the Young Bucks… THAT is your leadership team. Who do you think the locker room respects more? Rock and Triple H, or Tony and his Young Bucks? Easy, because we’re seeing more AEW wrestlers leaving that TOXIC workplace than top WWE talents jumping to AEW.
Cody Rhodes was an EVP, while CM Punk was AEW’s top draw. Both left the company during 2022 and 2023.
No problem, AEW signed Mercedes Moné for around $3 million, which is more than any female in the WWE earns in base salary. Only reason why she is there is because WWE refused to overpay her, the same talent who walked out of the WWE TWICE over creative differences. For Tony, it’s easier for him to just say “yes” to anything Mercedes demands.
I’m still waiting for the return on investments made in Adam Copeland, Okada, and Will Ospreay. Each of those 3 scoffed at the lower offers that the WWE made them, and yet all 3 aren’t drawing for AEW. Edge looks like a much older version of himself that we recently witnessed in the WWE. Okada is a complete bust in AEW and appears to have totally cashed in. Ospreay is a great worker, yet he lacks the personality and promo intangibles to help hype his character.
WWE is filling NFL Stadiums for their big events, while AEW is lucky to fill 3,500 in an arena that holds 5,000. AEW All-In is really struggling to sell tickets.
AEW is thrilled if they get viewership near 700,000. WWE is holding steady on Friday Nights for Smackdown on the USA Network (available in 40 million fewer homes than it was with FOX) with 1.5 million or above. Netflix deal is netting WWE 3-4 million viewers weekly for RAW.
AEW’s combined television deals for all of its shows are worth around a reported $185 million. WWE’s deal on USA Network for JUST Smackdown is worth $280 million per year, while receiving $500 million per year from Netflix. Receiving up to $25 million per year from CW for NXT’s shows is just the cherry on the top.
AEW’s merchandise sales have declined since 2023… Nobody is moving significant merchandise. Meanwhile, WWE is shattering records of sales at events and per year. They are just printing money.
But WWE is the problem and “dysfunctional”, according to AEW marks who have utter hatred with anything associated with WWE.
Uh huh…
How is it that CM Punk is well behaved in the WWE culture and yet became increasingly miserable in AEW?
Keep telling yourself, like a fool, that AEW has better big events than WWE or that “episodes of AEW Dynamite are better than WWE PLEs”. Be a doofus like Dave Melzer who has massive star inflation for AEW events that fewer people are watching while he undercuts WWE matches repeatedly.
It is a FACT that Dave Meltzer did NOT give the WWE any 5-star matches between Badd Blood 1997 (HBK vs. Undertaker Hell in a Cell) and Money in the Bank 2011 (CM Punk vs. John Cena). Think about all of those great matches between 1998 and 2010 that missed the cut for Dave. It’s always joked that Kurt Angle never received a 5-star match from Dave, but what about HHH vs. Cactus Jack, ANY of the Rock vs. Austin matches, ANY of the TLC matches, either of the Wrestlemania HBK vs. Undertaker matches, among many great matches conducted by Steve Austin, Eddie Guerrero, Brock Lesnar, Rock, Triple H, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Edge, John Cena, and so many others.
^^^ That is who you want to be your leader in anti-WWE rhetoric while turning a blind eye about AEW’s continual decline and massive disappointments? A moron who gives 5-stars to basic matches and up to 7-stars for non-WWE matches?
The FACT is that AEW cannot re-invent itself in one night like the 4/21/2025 edition of Netflix RAW just did. Why? Because WWE’s core is still strong, while AEW’s is still rotten and will never heal.
Go ahead, rip Wrestlemania 41 apart… Go ahead and spread any rumors or assumptions about the Rock and Triple H’s relationship, past or present.
But the FACT is that your puny All Elite Wrestling is governed by Tony Khan and the Young Bucks, while being supported by total enablers and yes-men instead of qualified wrestling professionals who could legitimately help out. The architect of the WWE Attitude Era’s talent roster, Jim Ross, is RIGHT THERE on the roster and yet you’ve refused any help or advice from that great mind.
BECAUSE you know that AEW is so bad, the only happiness that you now get is when WWE has a brief moment of struggle. That’s a bummer for you, man.
WWE is doing just fine and will continue to do so with real men in charge, not immature children like Tony and the Bucks that many AEW marks enable to manage a wrestling company poorly.
WWE >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> AEW, by a long shot.
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