Dave Meltzer Claims WWE Rivalry With AEW Will “Heat Up”

According to Dave Meltzer, WWE and AEW will heat up their rivalry following reports that NXT will hold a special event the same day as All Out.

Recent reports have suggested that WWE will hold an NXT Network special on September 4th, the day after the company’s huge Clash At The Castle event in the UK.

This means that the event will be held on the same day that All Elite Wrestling hosts one of its biggest events of the year, All Out. Some fans have speculated that this could be the beginning of the rivalry between the two promotions ramping up.

Although there have been occasional shots thrown by each side, the companies haven’t gone up against each other directly since Rampage and SmackDown overlapped in October 2021. While there hasn’t been a long-term head-to-head battle since NXT and Dynamite had the same timeslot from September 2019 to April 2021. This era has been dubbed the “Wednesday Night War” in reference to the Monday Night War between WWE and WCW in the 1990s.

During the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed the news that NXT would be holding a show the same day as All Out. He suggested that this was a significant move on the part of WWE, coming soon after their change in leadership, and should not be underestimated.

“With this being his first move, what’s interesting is that, that is a very aggressive move against AEW. I think that the AEW vs. WWE is going to heat up.

“If it was up to AEW, they would both mind their own business and all of that, but that never worked with Vince [McMahon]. Although Vince had kind of stayed away from that. I guess this time with Paul Levesque and Stephanie [McMahon] there and Nick Khan running the show, people thought that they were only going to be interested in running their own stuff, but the bottom line, you were wrong.

I don’t think people understand, if you ever talk to anyone near the top of WWE about AEW, I mean, it’s just… I used to talk to Vince about WCW, and it’s almost the same.”

H/T to Inside The Ropes for the above transcription.