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There are several reports of an attempt by WWE to put AEW in hot water with their sponsors in the pizza cutter spot during the Nick Gage vs. Chris Jericho AEW Dynamite match that aired just before a Domino’s Pizza commercial.
The first report, from Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, indicates that there was a concerted campaign to contact AEW’s sponsors to alert them to the content of the match. Meltzer wrote: “Domino’s is a major sponsor of TNT and WarnerMedia programming, so this is a serious problem. There was a concerted campaign to contact the sponsors but at press time Domino’s was the only one to react to the game.
A few hours later, The voice of the struggle said that they [WWE] called reporters to convince them to pick up the story. VOW tweeted the following in response to what Dave Meltzer reported: “… they called reporters in hopes that the story would gain momentum. So far, this is not the case. To our knowledge, no advertiser (including Dominos) has withdrawn money from the table. Of course, one has the impression that all this will be for nothing.
In an article published on the Babyface v. Heel, reporter David Bixenspan cited an article published by Michael McCarthy which claimed that Domino’s Pizza was considering removing ads after seeing the pizza cutting spot. Bixenspan reported that a screenshot that was shared with him shows that a mainstream reporter said WWE contacted them to write an article on Domino’s Pizza and AEW.
If this is true, it wouldn’t be the first time WWE has been accused of trying to cause trouble between AEW and their advertisers.
In 2019, Dave Meltzer reported that Vince McMahon calling AEW a “blood and guts” company when appealing to an investor was a dirty tactic intended to hurt AEW in the ad community. Meltzer wrote: “The belief in the ad community is that Vince was trying to bury them with the fact that they’re doing this fight that you’re not supposed to be advertising about.”
During this week’s investor call, McMahon said he doesn’t view AEW as competition like he did with WCW.
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