As the Wednesday Night Wars heats up and enters its fourth week, WWE is doing everything they can to make sure AEW doesn't receive free advertising on their programming.

The Wednesday Night Wars may be between NXT and AEW, but new battle lines are being drawn by WWE after what happened to fans before this week's Raw.

John Clark of WrestleZone has reported that WWE security was threatening to remove fans from Monday's Raw in Cleveland, Ohio if they were seen wearing AEW merchandise on the hard-camera side or trying to get AEW seen on TV.

WWE security told the crowd that was near the stage and ramp that they would definitely be shown on TV that anyone that puts on an AEW shirt or shows an AEW sign would be thrown out of the arena.

According to Wrestling Inc, another fan who attended Monday's show said he was allowed into the arena despite wearing AEW merch, but he had to cover it up. Luckily, his friend lent him his sweater.

This is a move that shows just how seriously WWE is taking their competitor in the Wednesday Night Wars.

This also isn’t the first time WWE has stopped fans with AEW merch or signs as security turned away a fan wearing AEW merch from attending SmackDown earlier this year which was taking place on the same day as AEW's Double Or Nothing launch.

However, other reports from that day have stated WWE security had allowed fans to wear AEW merch into the arena.

Most people came to the conclusion that this was WWE's effort to stomp out the negative reaction spreading on social media from the initial reports.

Yet, just like this past week's Raw, some were told on that occasion to turn their AEW t-shirts inside out or to cover up with another shirt.

It's not surprising that WWE is asking their fans to hide any AEW merch they bring to their shows, but at the same time, it also tells us just how big of competition WWE believes AEW can be in today's wrestling world.