WarnerMedia announced last week that TBS/TNT/TruTV president Kevin Reilly had been fired and will be replaced by Casey Bloys, who previously oversaw programming for HBO. The move put a lot of pro wrestling fans on their heels as Reilly played a big role in AEW Dynamite becoming a weekly staple of TNT programming and earning a multi-year contract extension that includes getting a second weekly show.
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“When Tony Khan first shared with me his idea of starting a new wrestling league, I was impressed by his audacity to go up against a contender that has been the only game in town for twenty years, and ultimately believed that together we could bring his vision for a new, authentic, gritty product to bear,” Reilly said in a press release when the new deal between AEW and WarnerMedia was announced earlier this year. “The fans have spoken and after only three months, we have seen AEW shake up the wrestling world and this will only continue as we build upon this momentum.”
Cody Rhodes, reigning TNT Champion and AEW executive vice president, addressed the concerns via Twitter.
No. We have been blessed to have had so many viewers(even opposed), thus the 3+ year extension. It’s a great partnership!
— Cody (@CodyRhodes) August 8, 2020
Rhodes gave an update on AEW’s second show during an interview with ESPN back in late July.
“I think probably in four to six weeks I’ll have a firmer answer on that,” Rhodes said at the time. “That’s still very much the case. The format of that show might be different. It might rely on the production we have in place already, it might not. I know we’ve got all kinds of different plans converging on what we want. The goal of what the third hour would be is to showcase a different crop of talent from AEW. It’s very hard when you have this much talent and you only have a single weekly show. It’s hard to keep people in the mix. As a wrestler, it’s even hard to train for. The only way to train for wrestling is still wrestling. It’s been an adjustment, even without the pandemic.”
Here’s everything AEW has planned for this week’s Dynamite:
- TNT Championship: Cody Rhodes vs. Scorpio Sky
- Chris Jericho vs. Orange Cassidy
- Kenny Omega & Hangman Page vs. Jurassic Express
- The Young Bucks vs. Evil Uno & Stu Grayson
- Rock ‘n’ Roll Express Special Appearance
