AEW Set To Cash In Around $200 Million A Year With New WBD TV Deal

All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is close to finalizing a hefty broadcast extension with Warner Bros. Discovery. 

Puck News reported on Monday night that the soon-to-be-announced AEW-WBD extension will be for four years (three years guaranteed, plus an option) for around $170 million per year.

Billionaire Tony Khan (who, along with his father Shahid, also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars) founded AEW in 2019. The company was billed as the first true alternate to WWE since WCW in the mid-to-late 90s.

The perception and narratives around AEW are ever-changing. Initially, skeptics predicted the company would quickly flame out. In 2021, AEW made unexpected gains on WWE with the additions of CM Punk and Bryan Danielson, at which point some fans and journalists projected an unseating.

AEW did not flame out, nor did the company prove to be a true threat to WWE. (Note: WWE's business is much, much hotter now than in 2021.) Ultimately, AEW established itself as a clear and stable No. 2 professional wrestling brand in the world. And there's a market for that.

Estimates suggest WBD currently pays around $70 million a year for AEW content, which includes three weekly television shows: Dynamite on TBS Wednesdays, Rampage on TNT Fridays, and Collision on TNT Saturdays.

Other media reports suggest that WBD is likely to carry AEW pay-per-views on its streaming service Max. However, Max does not yet have the technology developed to implement pay-per-view features.

So, it's unclear if the pay-per-view component of the deal is included in the $170 million annual fee. Either way, WBD is about to pay more than double its current rate for AEW content.

According to Puck, WBD will air AEW twice a week moving forward across TBS, TNT, and TruTV – the latter of which WBD CEO David Zaslav plans to make a more sports-oriented network.

How can three different WBD networks carry AEW if it only airs twice a week? One possibility is airing Rampage, AEW's C-show, immediately following Dynamite or Collision on the same night but on TruTV.

The new deal with WBD will allow AEW to shop its other content elsewhere. Longtime wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer reported last week that AEW is hopeful that it can finalize a separate deal with Fox and debut a new weekly show called "Shockwave" on FS1, perhaps for around $30 million a year.

While Meltzer says the deal with Fox is not complete, AEW did file a trademark for "Shockwave," suggesting pretty heavy optimism.

Overall, at a time when so many entertainment brands are on the decline, professional wrestling is more profitable than ever. 

WWE Raw will debut on Netflix in January as part of a 10-year, $5 billion agreement. WWE SmackDown moved to the USA Network last week in a five-year, $1.4 billion deal. 

Now, AEW is about to cash in.