While WWE continues to be the pro wrestling juggernaut in business and pop culture, AEW sees the company as vulnerable. Some fans on podcasts and social media have bemoaned WWE and its chief executive, Vince McMahon, for turning “Monday Night Raw,” the company’s flagship show on USA, into a three-hour program that they say is guilty of being too long and largely predictable. In the process, WWE has lost some of its most gifted and popular performers — several of whom have found a home in AEW — in favor of trying to find stars who could replicate the kind of mainstream crossover appeal as John Cena and Dave Bautista, who’ve built successful careers in Hollywood.
