Stone Cold explains why competition from AEW is good for WWE

What?

For hardcore fans of AEW or WWE, this may be a hard pill to swallow, but Stone Cold Steve Austin says competition is a good thing.

Shocking.

Austin is one of the best minds in the business and in his humble opinion, AEW coming onto the scene in 2019 is a great thing for WWE.

Speaking with Sports Illustrated, Stone Cold says competition helped define his career for the better.

“Without competition, who knows what would have happened in my career—who knows what will come out of Wednesday nights, but I believe in competition. I know AEW is doing their thing and they say they’re not competition, and WWE might say it’s not competition, but if it’s on across from each other, it’s competition.”

Austin continued:

“I remember when WCW’s Nitro kicked our ass for two years in the ‘Monday Night Wars.’ I couldn’t believe it, I thought our show was better, but they kept winning. Finally, we started turning the tide when everybody got so hot. The fact that we had competition, man, that made everybody push the envelope. I certainly wasn’t afraid to push the envelope, and I did. I’m thankful for the ‘Monday Night Wars.’ They helped define me. They helped Vince, and it helped us go out on a limb with some of the crazy stuff we did in our feud that became water-cooler talk and transcend the business.”

A truly heartbreaking moment for pro wrestling fans who only want to see one league succeed.

The old adage of competition breeding innovation may apply to the world of pro wrestling more than ever.

AEW? NXT? WWE? Why not all three producing a good product plus New Japan and a handful of indies as well?