I know alot of fans want to make AEW vs WWE into this big war like the Monday night battles but really it's not even close. It's more like arguing a college team like Alabama could beat the worst NFL team, which they couldn't but it's fun to discuss. Yes AEW may come close in demos of Raw and beat NXT on a regular basis. But how can you compare one league that only has to fill two hours of programming a week vs another league that fills 7 hrs a week? Obviously AEW is going to be must see just because it's only on one day. WWE has 3 shows plus content for the network to pump out. And if you really want to compare numbers weekly shouldn't you add up all of WWE numbers vs all of AEW numbers? WWE has about 6-7 million eyes on its products a week vs about million a week for AEW if you add in Dark. That seems pretty one sided to me.
And also how long will AEW keep getting to use the built in excuse “We've only been around for a year” when they fail or succeed. You have said it yourself a few times even. Its not like they are some grassroots league that built themselves up from nothing. The owner has access to billions of his dad's dollars, they have multiple household names like Jericho, Cody, and Mox to attract viewers, they own a nice looking venue to broadcast from, and are on one of the biggest cable networks who has a history showing wrestling. Which is why it debuted to 1.4 million people, but they couldn't keep it going. I think what MLW or ECW in the 90s did is way more impressive, especially how they have to keep rebuilding stars. Even TNA/Impact back in the day was impressive with the numbers they put up, and for a time they went against Raw on Mondays.
AEW has a niche audience that loves them and there is nothing wrong with that. They are just not on WWE's level and that isn't an insult but most of their fans will take it that way. Do some WWE wrestlers want to go there, for sure, cause they have more creative freedom and think the grass may be greener. I have yet to see that work out, looking at you Miro! But for the most part WWE fears them cause it gives wrestlers leverage.
See, when people talk about “moving the goalposts”, this is what they're referring to.