AEW believed to have a “done deal” with Warner Brothers Discovery for a media rights renewal
Just prior to the 2024 AEW All Out PPV event, AEW President Tony Khan said the company was “on the 1 yard line at the most important time in our history.” While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com commented on the status of AEW’s media rights negotiations with Warner Brothers Discovery…
“The WBD deal is a done deal, and there are going to be changes. From what I gather, there is going to be a pay-per-view component in this deal. Exactly what it is, I don’t know… I don’t know exactly if it’s going to be how UFC does it. It’s going to be how WWE does it, but you know, there is going to be a deal with MAX with the pay-per-views in some form is what it looks like. But the deal’s done.”
There have been rumors that AEW could potentially be working with FOX as well. AEW recently filed a trademark for the term Shockwave which has led to speculation about a new show.
Meltzer noted the following…
“The FOX deal is not done. I know a lot of people have been talking about the idea on the FOX network. I do not know, but I would very strongly suspect it will not be on the FOX Network. It would probably be another station. You know, whether it FS1, whether it’s a different station, whether it’s streaming component, I don’t know, and it’s not, and I don’t believe it’s a done deal either. I think it’s something that they’re working on, although as far as the Shockwave thing, they did trademark the name of Shockwave. So they have to be pretty darn close to a deal to go and actually go to the length of trademarking the name.” (quotes courtesy of WrestlingNews.co)