Hulk Hogan believes that AEW could be a serious competitor to WWE in the future.
Hogan was a key factor in the biggest ratings battle in wrestling history, the Monday Night Wars between WWE Raw and WCW Nitro. Beginning in June 1996, WCW would famously draw in more viewers than its rival for 83 consecutive weeks. Shortly afterwards in July at the Bash at the Beach pay-per-view, Hogan would form the nWo with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, a key factor in Nitro’s ratings dominance.
Hulk Hogan Believes AEW Dynamite Could Compete Against WWE Raw
Fast forward to 2019 and some have claimed that a new ratings war is underway, where WWE are battling for viewers with new rival All Elite Wrestling. Following a head-to-head ratings battle between AEW Dynamite and NXT on Wednesday nights, the WWE developmental brand would eventually move to Tuesdays.
Speaking with Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour, Hulk Hogan has praised All Elite Wrestling for the work they have done in their short history. The Hall of Famer even believes that in the future Dynamite could directly compete against Monday Night Raw:
“I was talking to somebody, and I equated it to NASCAR drivers. You need seat time. You need to spend time in that seat until you start winning championships. It’s almost like AEW is on track. They’re kind of like the little engine that could, and they’re on track. I just think they need more seat time. They just need to be around just a little bit longer to be really, really, really competitive, where they could go head to head on Monday nights, but they’re moving forward quite quickly. They’re doing a great job over there,”
Hogan then confirmed that he does watch AEW programming, along with other promotions:
“I record everything, brother. I’m a wrestling fan. I record everything, and I’ll sit back and I’ll fast forward through stuff and watch stuff I want to watch. If a match is the sh*ts and I can see it going nowhere, I’ll blow right by it. But yeah, they got a lot of talent over there, a lot of good guys.”
The last time that a major promotion attempted to compete against WWE on Monday nights was IMAPCT Wrestling back in January 2010, which Hogan was a part of at the time. Following an initial ratings bump, IMPACT would struggle to retain viewers, ultimately making the decision to move to Thursday nights in May.
H/t to Fightful for the use of transcriptions.