WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon was on
The Bill Simmons Podcast to promote WrestleMania 37. Simmons brought up WWE’s new competition, AEW, and he asked if it is good for
WWE to have competition.
“I think having to a competitor, it always makes you — it’s not that we never had a competitor. We just look at everything as competitive,” McMahon said. “Anything that’s competing for eyeballs and attention is a competitor. We’re all competing against each other, but in terms of a direct wrestling competitor, I think hopefully, it’s going to make you a better company. It’s going to make you re-examine everything that you do and do it to the best of your capability.
“I think that it’s always a good thing. It can make you better and stronger.”
Simmons then noted that Jon Moxley left WWE and has gone on to become a bigger star. He asked McMahon if WWE sees moves like that and think about if they made a mistake or not.
“In his particular case,
he was leaving anyway, and I do believe that was a mutual decision. Though, I wasn’t a part of those conversations,” McMahon noted. “His case is a little bit different, but I remember back when it was WCW and the Monday Night Wars and our talent were getting stripped away and showing up on their show. I think it taught us a lot about business. Handshake deals don’t necessarily matter at the end of the day. You need to have contracts. You need to do business differently.
“I think those were some of the key learnings from that time. From this time, we’ll see where it all shakes out, but yes, we’re constantly talking about how we can be better and what we can do better because we always want to be the best company that we can be for our fans, for our shareholders, for employees [and] for our talent. We want to be the best.”
