AEW President Tony Khan Blasts WWE for "Predatory Business Practices"
Tony Khan responds to fabricated reports about AEW Collision's viewership.
Over the weekend, reports of AEW Collision's viewership hitting the 100,000 mark were released but it turns out the figures provided were of the midnight airing of Collision and not its usual time slot of 8 p.m. ET. Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer was quick to hop online to defend his numbers, which put AEW more in the 300,000 range. Meltzer accused WWE of the petty practices, intentionally misleading people with information. Meltzer also stated that it's not at all a new practice -- it's been happening for decades.
"Sorry, but the ratings I listed were accurate. The others were not. They were supplied by WWE to the reporter," Meltzer said in response to wrestling fan. "Sorry for people mad because everything I stated was correct, and this is not a new story. It's a story that dates back many years and has been talked about and written about the entire time. In other words, people mad at the accurate story are the ones who complained without checking something easily verifiable. Ultimate irony."
AEW President Tony Khan followed up with a quote post on X, calling WWE's business practices "predatory" but in the same breath assuring fans that AEW isn't going anywhere. "These are the same predatory business practices that Jim Crockett Promotions + many former wrestling territories faced in the 1980s," Khan wrote. "I'm very grateful to all of you wrestling fans who watch AEW, and @AEW is here to stay."
AEW just passed its five year anniversary in May with the big Double or Nothing pay-per-view weekend in Las Vegas. With the milestone anniversary behind them, they are also in their contract year. Warner Bros. Discovery currently has exclusivity rights through the summer. Khan has made it clear many times in the past that he's happy with their working relationship and WBD executives reportedly attended a recent taping of AEW Dynamite amidst their ongoing negotiations. If the two sides put pen to paper on a new agreement, an announcement will likely not come until the summer or fall and will be kept close to the chest, according to reports.
WBD's rights deal with the NBA is hanging in the balance after this season which has been a factor into whether or not AEW will have leverage going into negotiations for their new deal. Should they lose, that means WBD will likely be looking to fill the basketball void which could be a positive for Khan and AEW. Since their last television deal went into place in the fall of 2019, AEW has added many different weekly programs to its slate, including AEW Rampage and AEW Collision as well as two reality programs, AEW: All Access and the short-lived Rhodes To The Top.
