Backstage Report Claims AEW's Tony Khan Was 'Thrilled' About Paramount Acquiring WBD

The media landscape in the United States is set to undergo a huge change in the near future as the bidding war over who will purchase AEW's broadcasting partner, Warner Brothers Discovery, looks to have been won by Paramount. After initially agreeing a deal with Netflix, Paramount outbid the streaming giant to secure a deal, and after detailing what the purchase could mean for AEW last week, Dave Meltzer in this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter claimed that one man who is very happy about the deal is none other than Tony Khan himself.

Meltzer was told by those close to Khan that the AEW President was thrilled when the news came out, feeling that Paramount purchasing WBD instead of Netflix is actually the best possible outcome for him. One of the reasons for this is the idea of HBO MAX and Paramount+ potentially merging into one streaming service, which would also include Discovery+, Pluto TV, and BET+. If the services do merge, there would approximately 200 million worldwide subscribers, with just under 44% of that number being subscribers based in the US. Combining that with the fact that Paramount are picking up the television stations, including TBS and TNT where AEW airs its weekly shows, the Paramount purchase has the potential to put AEW in around 116 million homes in the United States alone, the most out of any US wrestling show and almost double the amount of homes than when AEW last negotiated a media rights deal in 2024.

However, there are some people who are skeptical about the deal being good for AEW, with Meltzer highlighting that David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance, talked about putting the UFC on TV, specifically mentioning a Saturday night timeslot on TNT, the current slot which "AEW Collision" occupies. This could have some upside potential as AEW could air after the UFC, giving "Collision" a massive lead-in boost. It could also lead to "Collision" moving to a Thursday night which would also be beneficial, or the other way around by using "Collision" to lead into the UFC and boosting the end of the show. With that said, there is a chance that "Collision" could be dropped entirely depending on ratings, and given the fact that UFC is under the TKO umbrella, eliminating AEW would be something that TKO would be very happy about.

Meltzer rounded off by saying that AEW wouldn't have a problem finding a new outlet if the Paramount purchase does damage the company, but media rights are so important that getting another nine or ten figure deal would be very hard to come by with any other organization.