Is WWE or AEW Having a Better 2025?
When it comes to pro wrestling in North America, fans have plenty of options, but the top two promotions are WWE and AEW, and everyone else is competing for a distant third.
While both companies may present a similar product from a distance, their operations are very different.
WWE is and has been the top wrestling promotion ever since it bested WCW in the Monday Night Wars. It has existed for decades under a few different names, and in many ways, WWE defines what North American pro wrestling is to the world
When it comes to AEW, they are the new kid on the block. With just over six years since its inception, Tony Khan and the roster have grown the company into the No. 2 promotion.
Both companies have deals with major cable networks and streaming services, both present several PPV events every year, and both have relationships with international promotions to help expand their reach.
We wanted to take a look back at how 2025 has been for both companies and determine which one had the better year. We're going to compare a few different things, like TV ratings and PPV attendance, while also looking at some more subjective things, like the quality of the product being presented to fans.
PPV Attendance
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Comparing numbers for AEW and WWE is difficult because the companies don't hold the same number of events, and rarely hold them in the same arenas, so you can't do an even comparison.
Instead, we will look at the last three years of attendance for a couple of key events from each company to compare year-over-year differences.
WWE Royal Rumble
WWE WrestleMania (Combined two-night total)
AEW All In
AEW Double or Nothing
Before we get into analyzing this data, we need to point out that these PPV numbers only tell part of the story, but it's an important part of the business model for both organizations.
If you look at the WWE numbers, you will see an increase year over year for the Rumble. In fact, 2025 was the highest number of fans to attend any Rumble event in the company's history.
For WrestleMania, the numbers went down a bit in 2024 from the previous year due to the change in venue, but remained steady in 2025. This is WWE's biggest event of the year, so it's always going to be a draw.
Looking at AEW, there is a significant difference. For both Double or Nothing and All In, we saw year-over-year decreases. While part of that can be attributed to the size of the buildings, it is also an indicator of the level of confidence AEW has right now.
If the company thought it could fill stadiums for every event like it did for All In in 2023, it would be doing so. The fact that AEW has been running smaller venues over the past two years tells a story in itself.
All In is arguably AEW's biggest event, so it's surprising to see such a significant year-over-year decrease.
We should note that not every AEW event saw a year-over-year decrease. Forbidden Door had several thousand more fans in 2025 than it did in 2024. And the same can be said for WWE not seeing an increase for every event.
When it comes to PPV numbers, WWE won this round. It's a juggernaut of a company, especially since the TKO merger, so this is one fight that AEW was almost guaranteed to lose.
Relationships with Other Promotions
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WWE and AEW are based in the United States, but both companies aim to appeal to fans worldwide. They have formed relationships with other promotions to bolster their rosters and expand their audiences.
AEW was more comfortable working with other companies before WWE was, so during its early years, TNA and NWA titles were present and being defended at AEW events on occasion. Who could forget Tony Khan's weekly TNA commercials?
In 2025, AEW's biggest partnerships are with NJPW in Japan and CMLL in Mexico. The company also owns Ring of Honor and currently has Mercedes Mone carrying belts from several indie promotions on television every week.
WWE has been hesitant to even mention the existence of other promotions until the past couple of years, but it has been embracing relationships with other companies to expand its reach.
Not only is WWE now officially linked to TNA, but it has also conducted talent exchanges with Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan, purchased AAA in Mexico in 2025, and brought back the Evolve brand as another developmental system.
However, there is a stark difference in how WWE and AEW treat these relationships. When it comes to WWE, it still wants Raw and SmackDown to be seen as the top shows in all of wrestling, so it tends to have anyone from other companies appear mostly on NXT instead of the main roster.
What this does is create the perception that the best wrestlers from TNA and AAA are only capable of competing against NXT, which is still a developmental brand for WWE, no matter how much it tries to convince us otherwise.
Even its co-branded events, like Worlds Collide, aren't marketed as being as big as B-level PPV events like Backlash or Night of Champions.
AEW, on the other hand, has CMLL and NJPW stars appearing regularly on its flagship shows. On top of that, the AEW and NJPW crossover PPV, Forbidden Door, is seen as one of AEW's bigger shows of the year.
If you are a wrestler in NJPW or CMLL, there is a chance you could end up in a big match at one of the biggest AEW shows. If you are a wrestler in AAA or TNA, the best you can hope for is an NXT PLE or, possibly, a quick appearance on Raw or in the Royal Rumble.
When it comes to how it deals with other companies, AEW has the upper hand. It goes to great lengths to ensure the history and stars of other companies are not viewed as less important than its own wrestlers.
International Events
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If you want to be seen as a global brand, you need to do things outside the United States to generate interest in the product. Both WWE and AEW hold PLEs or PPVs outside the U.S. every year. Here is a look at what each company did in 2025.
WWE:
AEW:
WWE held one more international PPV than AEW, but when you look at how many more events WWE holds overall, it looks more even across the board.
Both companies went to Canada and countries in Europe in 2025, but the biggest difference is WWE's controversial relationship with Saudi Arabia.
During his appearance on Ariel Helwani's podcast, Tony Khan was told that AEW is one of the few major companies in sports and entertainment without a relationship with Saudi Arabia.
AEW may be able to take the moral high ground in international relations, but WWE held shows on more continents in 2025, giving it a wider global reach.
In the end, both companies are trying to make sure fans in other territories are served.
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TV Ratings and Streaming
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When it comes to television ratings, things can get a little muddy. Nielsen ratings were once the gold standard for how shows measured their success, but as streaming has grown each year, those traditional TV numbers have become less important.
This does not mean they do not matter. In fact, they are still very important when it comes to WWE and AEW negotiating new contracts when the time comes. We won't bore you with a bunch of numbers, but if you want to see everything laid out in easy-to-understand graphs, check out WrestleNomics.
Brandon Thurston and the team at WrestleNomics do an incredible job of tracking everything and making the information easy to digest.
While the data for Raw is harder to track in 2025 due to airing exclusively on Netflix with no cable presence, the other shows are still being tracked, and there is an obvious trend across both promotions.
In 2025, Dynamite, Collision, SmackDown and NXT all saw fluctuations. Most shows saw slight decreases each quarter, except NXT. The black-and-gold brand saw viewership increase during the first three quarters of 2025.
Of those four shows mentioned, SmackDown is regularly the highest viewed of the four with over a million viewers consistently. Dynamite and NXT tend to be right around the same numbers week to week in the 600-650,000 range, and Collision is usually bringing up the rear.
Another factor to consider is AEW being simulcast on both cable TV and HBO Max. Because many viewers are streaming the show instead of watching on TBS and TNT, those ratings are skewed.
When it comes to streaming, both promotions have a huge presence these days.
AEW has the better streaming setup, with all its content under one umbrella with Max, but WWE has the more expansive reach, so the advantage goes to whichever company you perceive as having the better options for you personally.
When it comes to TV ratings, both promotions have seen declines, but WWE has remained steadier than AEW, giving it an edge.
Match Quality and Quantity
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We can talk about ratings, attendance, and promotional relationships until the cows come home, but in the end, what matters most to the fans watching is the quality of the product.
With WWE, there is a lot more production to it. We get several non-wrestling segments on every show designed to drive stories forward. Sometimes they hit, sometimes they don't.
Across a two-hour episode of SmackDown, we usually get four matches, a couple of in-ring promos and a handful of quicker backstage moments.
On an episode of Dynamite, we usually get anywhere from six to eight matches, a promo or two, and maybe a backstage segment from time to time.
If you look at both companies, AEW offers more minutes of wrestling per hour of television. And when it comes to PPV events, AEW can sometimes have as many as three times as many matches as the average WWE PLE.
Two recent events are a perfect example. Crown Jewel had only five bouts, but WrestleDream had 13, including what took place on the pre-show. Even if you think AEW shows can run a bit long, there is no argument against giving your fans more of what they want.
As far as match quality is concerned, WWE has tons of wrestlers capable of putting on show-stealing performances at the drop of a hat, but it often feels like they are being held back by management.
Whether this is done to help prevent further injuries or to ensure the PPVs are higher than the weekly shows' is up for debate, but either way, it's noticeable.
With AEW, it feels like seeing a Match of the Year candidate is possible on just about every show. They certainly go a little harder when it's time for a PPV, but it feels like the wrestlers are given more freedom to work the kinds of matches they want in AEW.
While WWE may be better at telling more consistent stories week to week, AEW has them beat when it comes to match quality. This is obviously a matter of opinion and you may prefer WWE's match style, but AEW bouts consistently get higher ratings on CageMatch.net and most other places.
Who Had the Better Year?
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Deciding which company had the better year is going to come down to which metrics you choose to use.
If you want to look solely at profitability, WWE wins hands down. The company has a wider reach than ever before and continues to expand each year.
If you want to look solely at the product we see on TV every week, AEW will likely have the edge thanks to its better matches and more action per hour.
However, the main takeaway from all of this is not that one company is doing better than the other. What you should take away from all of this is that right now might be the best time to be a wrestling fan.
As wrestling fans, we are spoiled with an abundance of great options right now. Whether you like WWE, AEW, TNA, NJPW or indie promotions, you have everything at your fingertips.
You can literally watch hours of wrestling every single day and never run out of content. There is no offseason, so you are never going to be waiting around for the next year to start like fans of any major sport do.
WWE and AEW may be competitors, but many fans enjoy both because there is no reason why they can't. Their shows air on different days and only occasionally overlap, so it's not like you are being forced to choose, as we had to back in the day with WWE Raw and WCW Nitro.
Pro wrestling is healthier than it has been in a long time, maybe ever, so that is the thing we should all be focusing on.
At the end of the day, WWE saw a bigger global expansion, higher ratings and more people attending its shows on a regular basis, so it comes out ahead this time.
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