AEW’s television deal with Warner Bros. Discovery is coming up at the end of this year, and the pro wrestling rumor mill recently indicated that the exclusive negotiating window between AEW and WBD is about to close.
With that in mind, a new deal with WBD could be announced any day or week now. If AEW lands on the higher end of the money figure they’ve been trying to negotiate, then it will make all the critics of their ratings results this year look really foolish. If AEW lands on the lower end of the rumored money figures being thrown around, then it shows that AEW’s ratings slump came at the worst time possible and the critics were justified. If AEW lands somewhere in the middle, I suppose nothing will change in the pro wrestling discourse and the same people will be going in circles about how much AEW sucks or how great it is.
The point is, the terms of AEW’s new TV deal will rank among the very biggest pro wrestling stories of the year, because it will go a long way towards determining AEW’s financial health over the next few years.
On a call with the media today ahead of this weekend’s Forbidden Door pay-per-view, AEW President Tony Khan acknowledged the importance of AEW’s next TV deal and used a football metaphor to express strong optimism about where things are headed on that front:
“It’s a big year for AEW with our media rights renewal coming up, and it’s gonna affect everybody who works here in AEW, our wrestlers, our staff, and everybody in the company and the fans of the company too. You know, the deal we make and the distribution. So it’s a really important time for us.
And the fact that we’ve gotten here and we’re at this point, and I believe we’re in the red zone right now, and really approaching the goal line, and about to make a big push for the big touchdown we’ve been chasing for years. I think it’s really really exciting that we’re so close, and this has been a great drive together with you the past five years. I’ve enjoyed it, and I hope that we’re about to put the ball in the end zone. I can feel it coming, and it’s a really exciting time…”
How do you think the final sequence of Tony’s football metaphor will turn out? Will an army of bots show up to cause Tony Khan to fumble on the one-yard line? Will the Young Bucks settle for a game-tying super kicked field goal after MJF’s quarterback sneak doesn’t work? Can Will Ospreay jump over every defender and troll on the field to score the game-winning touchdown? Will someone hand the ball off to Orange Cassidy and hope for the best? Will Samoa Joe choke out a referee for making a shitty call on pass interference and then intimidate all the other officials into giving him exactly what he wants?
Let me know how you see things playing out in the comments below, Cagesiders.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login