Brett Weitz, the general manager of TNS, TBS and truTV for WarnerMedia, spoke with Deadline on Wednesday and addressed a number of topics pertaining to All Elite Wrestling. It was confirmed earlier this year that AEW Dynamite would be moving from TNT to TBS beginning in January and that the company would be maintaining its presence on TNT with four quarterly supercards (as well as AEW Rampage, which was originally supposed to jump to TBS as well). Weitz said that, while AEW has already found success on TNT, the move is expected to give the TBS network a boost.
Videos by ComicBook.com
We obviously make these decisions with a lot of data and gut behind them,” he said. “The brand of TBS is we’re always here for a good time. That is exactly what AEW is and AEW Dynamite, and so, when we look at the concentric circles of TBS and TNT, our TBS viewer is a heavy drama viewer, believe it or not. So, we know that those fans will migrate over, and we also believe that wrestling fans find the content wherever it is, and we also think, more wrestling’s better for everybody, honestly.”
Weitz spoke incredibly highly of AEW elsewhere in the interview, saying, “We have AEW, which continues to be such an overperformer; this challenger brand of a wrestling asset has now become one of the biggest shows in cable, which is incredible for us.”
Cody Rhodes, one of AEW’s executive vice presidents and star wrestlers, talked about the move in an interview with ComicBook earlier this year.ย
“Tony [Khan] was able to facilitate the best possible deal for All Elite Wrestling, and that means more money for the content, and then more importantly, the term that Brett [Weitz] at WarnerMedia used is the best term, it truly is an expansion,” Rhodes said. “We’re just expanding our brand on to TBS, that being Rampage, coming over to TBS, Dynamite itself, four specials, a la Clash of the Champions, our Saturday Night’s Main Event. Those were kind of comparable. Having those on TNT, we’re really all over, and just watching the upfronts for WarnerMedia to see our penetration and presentation, made me really proud that we’ve been such a nice success story.
“So for me, I was excited. I’m always kind of the eternal … I’m very reserved in what I think, and so we put it out there on the medium, but it would be remiss if I didn’t think of the fact that TBS has been a part of my life since I was a little kid,” he added. “Tony Schiavone texted me that morning, and of course he said, ‘We’re going back to the mothership.’ And the mothership is what my father used to call TBS, for good reason, because they took that first chance on WCW and Jim Crockett Promotions. And now they’ll have all of the wrestling and some familiar names, and a very unique bell-to-bell product. So I’m ecstatic. Plus I’m a psycho American Dad fan. Just to share the space with them and perhaps to do a little cross-promotion would be a really fun thing to do.”
