Last night, John Ourand of The Varsity at Puck News reported details on the All Elite Wrestling TV extension with Warner Bros Discovery.
I didn’t really want to do an article on it and just leave it to when the news officially releases but I’ve been sitting on this for so long I might as well break down what I think of what’s been talked about.
For a simple breakdown:
– Three years guaranteed, option for fourth year
– $170 million per year estimate
– “AEW matches will air on TNT, TBS, and TruTV twice a week”
– “AEW is also pitching another package, primarily to broadcast channels.”
So let’s discuss the details! Thanks to John Ourand, B.J. Bethel, Brandon Thurston, Andrew Zarian, and Kenny The Sports Guy Podcast for info.
Three years guaranteed, option for fourth year
WWE has been signing five year contracts on their deals with USA and CW, while their Netflix deal is a bizarre 10 year deal with a 5 year escape and an option to extend for 10 years. So it’s kind of a five, more of a 10, possibly a 20?
But think about the fact that AEW’s original threshold deal got bumped and bumped to push it to five years when it was originally a three year deal. The plan was never for AEW to have their deal expire at the same time as WWE and AEW. Having both companies on the market at the same time is a tough situation for AEW. They will always be second to the food bowl.
Having a three year deal with a fourth year option means even if the option is taken? AEW is negotiating their next deal earlier than WWE on at least two of their deals. Going to market earlier means anyone who doesn’t think they can wait for WWE might negotiate with AEW. It can also simply allow AEW to lock a renewal deal with WBD at whatever the market importance is before the end of the decade.
I think AEW argued for the lesser years, not WBD.
$170 Million Per Year
It is believed that the original AEW Dynamite deal (it had been bumped up twice by WBD so it’s hard to know the exact number) is around $70 million, so adding $100 million to that is a huge success. For anyone who tries to compare it to WWE? Remember that Raw has been on since 1993 and Smackdown since 1999. The licencing fees WWE received for all of their programming in 2013 was $160.9 million. AEW would be getting more for their TV as a challenger brand than WWE received in 2013. That was for Raw, Smackdown, and other WWE programs for USA and SyFy.
It should also be added that John Ourand didn’t seem to have any of the PPV or streaming details on the new deal. There has been a lot of rumours on AEW moving their pay per views to the MAX streaming platform. That would mean more money in the pocket of the Khan family.
The big one for me is if AEW programming will be simulcasted on MAX similar to the recent Players Era Festival tournament deal that was announced last week. Meaning you can watch Dynamite on TBS or watch it on the MAX streaming app. Same day, same time, live. If AEW secures this? They’ve secured their future.
AEW matches will air on TNT, TBS, and TruTV twice a week
All Elite Wrestling is currently providing five hours of programming to WBD. I’m not going to count Battle of the Belts since it’s irregular or Overdrive, the “high octane” show associated with AEW on TNT. There’s a good possibility AEW could be getting an additional hour per week, with also talk that AEW Rampage in its current state might be no more.
I’m not sure how the time breakdown ends up happening, if AEW Collision moves to three hours or Dynamite moves to three hours. I also don’t know if the rumoured FOX/FS1 show (more on that later) is a one or two hour show.
As an original PAGER for AEW Rampage, it’s a sad moment if it ends up ending. The one hour runt of the AEW television litter, it was often at times completely neglected by AEW when they could have tried making it a better show. One hour wrestling is ideal in my mind, so I was always more comfortable watching Rampage over Collision.
I don’t know how things get re-arranged, but there’s already rumours of Collision moving to Thursday.
This makes a lot of sense since WBD has TV slots to pack with the loss of the NBA. WBD has added the French Open, Savannah Bananas (hell yeah), CFL, Mountain West football, and Big East basketball to the lineup. They likely try for more MLB as well soon. They still need something consistent to replace the NBA on the Tuesday and Thursday broadcast nights. Taking the Saturday Night slot and moving it to Thursday would be the easiest fix in the book for them.
Now the twice a week. There’s two possibilies.
AEW has six shows on WBD per week. That would mean Dynamite, Collision, Rampage, and then three more. That’s doubtful to me.
AEW has three shows on WBD with three re-runs or simulcasts. There we go. Dynamite, Collision, and Rampage (or a Rampage replacement? AEW:ROH?) and then re-runs of it or a simulcast (shown at the same time on another channel) for TruTV, which is pushing itself to having a Sports block in primetime (TNT Sports).
AEW is also pitching another package, primarily to broadcast channels
This has been a big rumour, first discussed by Andrew Zarian.
It looks like a big part of why this deal took so long to come together was AEW waiting for their exclusivity window with WBD to end so they could negotiate with another broadcast partner. The rumour is the new trademark of AEW Shockwave will be for a show on a FOX network, either FS1 or FOX broadcasting.
This could be too early to speculate on, as nobody is even sure if this will be a cable show or a broadcast network show (possibly to replace Smackdown? Likely not same Friday night) but I did propose an idea:
So basically, Shockwave would be on FS1 for most nights of the week. But at times when FOX had a hole in scheduling due to a sport being in off-season, they could move Shockwave to FOX. Maybe plan it strategically as themed shows. Maybe even make it the new Battle of the Belts? There’s a show that AEW completely abandoned on making special. Would be nice to revive that.
Most seem to speculate that Shockwave would be AEW’s fourth show. I don’t know if that includes an AEW:ROH show or not. If yes, it’d be Dynamite, Collision, AEW:ROH, and Shockwave.
Okay, summary please
What we know based on current reports:
– $170 million per year just for the TV deals with WBD for three years with fourth year option
– Rumoured TV deal called Shockwave with FOX/FS1
– MAX/PPV not yet discussed
– AEW:ROH not yet discussed
– AEW Rampage rumoured to be ending
– AEW Collision may move to Thursday
– AEW shows to air twice a week over TBS, TNT, and TruTV
Based on what we know, what I think ends up happening:
– AEW Pay Per Views on MAX, as well as special themed shows airing only on MAX
– AEW:ROH to get some sort of deal, either on MAX or on TruTV
– AEW to gain an extra hour with WBD somewhere
– Shockwave will be an FS1 show that gets bumped up to FOX between sports seasons
– AEW and ROH back catalogue on MAX
– MAX simulcast on all shows
Overall this is fantastic for AEW fans. I expect the WBD portion of this to be announced soon, either this week, or officially announced at Grand Slam on September 25 in New York City or October 2 at the 5th Anniversary. Stay tuned to GrapPro.com for any breaking news on this.
