AEW President Tony Khan said to be “disappointed” with current offer from Warner Brothers Discovery

While speaking with media after the 2024 AEW Double or Nothing PPV event, AEW President Tony Khan commented on the company’s relationship with Warner Brothers Discovery. Khan stated the following…

“It’s a really big year [for AEW]. I think a lot of you know some of these details, but to peel back the curtain, this is our media renewal year, and like a lot of athletes or teams, in a big year with a big opportunity, we’re all really swinging for the fences here. So it’s going to be really important for us. We’ve been now going on five years at Warner Brothers Discovery and it’s been the most amazing relationship.”

“When we started this, something that was really important to me was bringing wrestling back to TNT and TBS because it really … to the American fans, it is something I grew up on and it’s a tradition that goes back over 50 years and it had been interrupted for too long and it’s really great having wrestling on TNT and TBS. It just fits like a glove in my opinion. I know we were having great talks and I’m very blessed to be engaged with the awesome leadership of Warner Brothers Discovery.” (quotes courtesy of WrestlingInc.com)

Former Hollywood Reporter editor Matthew Belloni noted in the Puck ‘Mail Room’ Newsletter that WBD’s exclusive negotiating window with AEW closes in July and AEW President Tony Khan is said to be “disappointed with the offer currently on the table.” CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav and TNT Sports head Luis Silberwasser reportedly want to keep AEW programming.

During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com discussed the situation…

“The better the television deal the more they can reasonably afford to bid on wrestlers, they could sign bigger name wrestlers when contracts are up and all that stuff. If they don’t get a better deal than they have now, they’ll be around but it would be harder to get as many top wrestlers to come over if the deal comes in low. There very clearly is very significant negotiations going on and WBD does want to keep the programming.”

“I don’t think there is a chance that no one is going to want the show, I mean I know there is people who are waiting to hear that ‘nobody wants the show’, ‘he failed’, ‘now what’s he going to do’, I don’t think that’s going to happen. But as far as where it ends up, who would be interested, there’s a lot of stations out there and it’s a highly rated show. But the question is, is it worth to a station more than $125 million a year? Which to me is the key figure, I think if you’re at $110 (million) they’d break even or be profitable, maybe even a little lower but $125 (million) is healthy profits. If it’s $110 (million) and they give up the pay-per-views somehow that’s not a great deal.” (quotes courtesy of WrestleTalk.com)