While AEW head Tony Khan will not confirm that a new TV rights deal with WBD has been struck, he isn’t shying away from confirming that AEW has a future with the media empire.
Khan did an extended interview with Busted Open Radio to hype this Wednesday’s Grand Slam in Queens, New York, and was asked about the future and where things are at WBD. Recent reporting by Puck’s John Ourand has the two sides agreeing to a three-year deal with an option for a fourth in the range of $170 million annually that could be announced as early as next week.
“I know they have been reporting things that are very interesting. There are a lot of reports and rumors. I have not confirmed and Warner Brothers has not confirmed anything officially,” he said, adding he has not leaked any info to Puck. “I think we have a really exciting future there. I can say with 100% certainty, AEW and TBS and TNT are here to stay for a long time.”
The current deal between AEW and WBD reportedly expires at the end of the year. Ourand also mentioned that AEW is also pitching a package primarily to broadcast channels which have been rumored to be Fox — the former home of WWE SmackDown. Khan has yet to address those rumors.
If CM Punk paid for his own triceps surgery, AEW head Tony Khan said he was surprised to hear it and offered to reimburse his former star if so.
Khan spoke to the media for an hour Thursday to promote Sunday’s AEW Dynasty, the audio of which is available at the bottom of this post.
Khan was asked about Punk’s claims during a recent interview that he had to take care of all aspects of the triceps injury he suffered at September 2022’s All Out and whether AEW had a policy to cover any medical expenses for their talent.
Khan said they typically cover those expenses for injuries suffered in AEW and would be surprised to hear if they didn’t do that for Punk. It didn’t sound accurate to him and he offered to reimburse him if that was the case.
When asked about how they would handle future dates in states with similar regulations, Khan was non-committal about not running those states or leaving Rose off those shows, saying he is looking forward to their 2024 schedule and will take everything under consideration with this developing situation.
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He was also asked about his decision to air the Punk/Jack Perry All In footage on last week’s Dynamite, saying that TBS called him after seeing the numbers and thought he did a good job. He said for TBS, ratings are the number one source of fan feedback and that airing the footage added “a lot of intrigue” into the FTR/Young Bucks Tag Team title match this weekend.
Here are some other highlights and threads from the hour-long talk with the audio available below:
Khan acknowledged and leaned into the $2 billion valuation by Forbes that came out Thursday and sayid AEW is the most valuable sports startup since the AFL which eventually merged with the NFL. He said the upcoming media rights deal is the most important thing for the company and that PPV growth is also important.
Khan said he isn’t sure if the multiple streaming options to buy AEW PPVs will continue after this upcoming three-month stretch. He didn’t say why WBD allowed them to now offer the PPVs via streaming sources other than Bleacher Report domestically.
He verified that the AEW Trios and Ring of Honor Six-Man Tag Team titles will be unified Sunday. He added one of the participants was injured and didn’t get cleared until this week which is why it took a while for the match to get announced.
Khan said they are up year-over-year when comparing first quarters, crediting more shows, higher PPV revenue and increased media rights.
He said the reason for the release of the full PPV schedule for the year was an initiative from new hire Kosha Irby.
He expects the availability of his full library to be part of the next media rights deal he signs.
They are still in the exclusive negotiation window with WBD on those rights.
He said the hire of Carlos Cabrera was Mike Mansury’s idea after having worked with him in WWE. Khan said he listened to fan feedback to upgrade their Spanish language presentation. He added that Mansury is fluent in Spanish.
