MMA journalist Ariel Helwani sat down with Paul Heyman for an extensive one-on-one interview with BT Sport that covered all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, the longtime MMA reporter spoke with “The Evil Genius” about a number of topics, including whether or not WWE Superstars pay attention to AEW, his own thoughts on the product and whether or not he considers it similar to ECW and/or legitimate competition to WWE.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics and more with his thoughts.
On if AEW is competition for WWE: “They are viable. They are a viable entity. God bless them for being there.”
On what he thinks of AEW: “I’m not the audience. 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**k?’ I don’t think AEW should give a f**k 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.”
On whether or not he considers AEW to be similar to ECW: “Yes and no. 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, overcomplimentary 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.”
On if WWE talent pays attention to 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 pretape airs?’ 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 counterprogramming. 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.”
Check out the complete Paul Heyman interview with Ariel Helwani below, or by visiting YouTube.com. H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes.
