AEW is currently in the midst of a TV deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, which features AEW Dynamite on TBS and AEW Rampage on TNT. The partnership has worked out well for both parties, but what happens when it’s time to talk about extending or renewing that partnership? That was the question asked of AEW President Tony Khan during a new interview with The New York Post, and while Khan says there is still a lot of time left on their current deal, Khan believes AEW’s future media rights will be important and a large revenue stream for the company moving forward, teasing that the next media rights deal could be historic.
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“I’m incredibly grateful every day that AEW has this great relationship with Warner Bros. Discovery and we’ve done well for TBS and TNT with ‘Dynamite’ and ‘Rampage’ where we’re a strong performer for Warner Bros. Discovery on a weekly basis. I think there is still a lot of time left for the next rights deal, but we have a great thing happening right now and I do believe our future media rights will be important and frankly a very large revenue stream for AEW going forward, and I think that’s because of the great support we’ve had from the fans and the hard work of everybody backstage and the wrestlers every Wednesday and Friday, pulling it together and delivering great shows,” Khan said.
“Whenever our next media right deal, the next one does kick in, it will be historic,” Khan said. “It will be recorded in history because everything in wrestling is recorded in history into posterity. It will make history however it goes. Right now, everyone would expect very, very well. We expect it’s going to go very well for us based on how strong we’ve been performing.”
Khan was also asked about the importance of Blood and Guts bouncing back in the ratings after the two shows before Forbidden Door were not as high. Khan said the go-home for Forbidden Door was well-received ratings-wise, and the pay-per-view also performed incredibly well, especially with all the changes to the card due to injuries.
“The second was higher. The second one was still the No. 1 show on cable and the first, before [that] was the No. 2 show on cable. People Using Television (PUT) had been down. For us, we always want to rank at or near the top of the cable world. The numbers have been especially impressive the last couple weeks because I think PUT was one of the all-time low weeks when we finished second and we were not far off first. We were No. 1 the past two weeks for the go-home for “Forbidden Door” and the follow-up show.I thought that was a good sign that the rating was significantly up for the go-home. It did indicate good things because the pay-per-view did incredibly well. Especially with injuries and changes to the card, I don’t know if people had that expectation,” Khan said.
