Dave Meltzer Assesses How A Potential WBD Acquisition Could Affect AEW
The future of All Elite Wrestling became a topic of discussion on September 11 as The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount Skydance were preparing a bid to buy Warner Brother Discovery, the broadcast home of AEW. Given the history of mergers between two companies not exactly proving to be good for professional wrestling, just look at what happened to WCW after the AOL Time Warner merger, some fans started to get worried that AEW might legitimately cease to exist if the purchase is made. However, in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer attempted to clear up any confusions people might have.
To put it simply, Meltzer stated that it's almost impossible to tell how the potential purchase of WBD will affect AEW, but there are a few things that people have latched on to. The main one being that Paramount have recently struck a deal with the UFC worth over $7 billion, and because TKO own the UFC, some have speculated that Paramount will throw AEW off the air to keep TKO happy, but Meltzer says that is very unlikely. While a change in personnel will always lead to changes within a company, Meltzer claims that AEW will likely be evaluated on their estimated worth by where their numbers are in late 2026 and early 2027, right around the time where they will likely be looking to strike a new media rights deal.
It's because of this that Meltzer thinks AEW will be fine as the keys to the company staying on the WBD/Paramount roster will be their success on both cable television and HBO MAX. On TV, "AEW Dynamite" is routinely the highest rated show on TBS and has routinely placed in the top ten of the cable TV rankings on Wednesday night, while "AEW Collision" has been moved around multiple times in order for that show to benefit from lead-ins like the NBA All-Star weekend and college basketball. For HBO MAX, they have a large weekly audience that tunes in to both "Dynamite" and "Collision," HBO MAX literally started a pay-per-view arm specifically for AEW, and now that WBD no longer has the NBA on their books, AEW are the most successful sports property on the platform.
Potential Change Was Already Expected For AEW
Speaking of sports, there was already talk of AEW being in trouble due to the split that will see Warner Brothers and Discovery go back to being two separate entities, which was reportedly set to happen in April 2026. This was a problem for AEW as the TNT Sports subscription service that has been talked about for a long time would see sports get taken off of HBO MAX. However, Meltzer is under the impression that AEW wouldn't be affected due to AEW's current media rights deal keeping them on HBO MAX, regardless of what happens with TNT Sports, until 2027, or 2028 if WBD pick up an extra year at an elevated price.
Of course, this would become meaningless if Paramount Skydance buys WBD before the split as they would acquire the Warner Brothers movie studio, HBO MAX, and all of the cable stations like TBS and TNT, as well as Discovery and CNN, the latter of which Meltzer thinks is the main reason Paramount Skydance want to buy WBD so they can control the news.
Right now AEW doesn't have anything major to worry about according to Meltzer, who actually sees the purchase as a potential positive given that they would be under the umbrella of a company who have far less cash problems than WBD. However, if their current value changes between now and late 2026/early 2027, combined with the change in ownership and less loyalty to the brand since WBD have been with AEW since the very beginning, it could develop into one of the biggest wrestling news stories of the next few years.