All Elite Wrestling, the phenomenon upstart professional wrestling promotion owned by Fulham FC and Jacksonville Jaguars owned Tony Khan and Shahid Khan, has become a billion dollar enterprise, if rumours are to be believed.
Reports say that the company has inked a $1 billion+ deal over five years with Warner Bros. Discovery, which already airs the company’s flagship shows in the United States, AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage, to be announced next week in New York City at the company’s next up-fronts.
The announcement will reportedly include an announcement of the deal, as well as a new two-hour Saturday series, AEW Collision, which will become an equally as important show as Dynamite.
The deal will also likely cover the company’s PPVs, or premium live events as the company’s main rival WWE does.
It will not cover the Tony Khan-owned legacy promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), though it is the reason that the company recently halted its YouTube-based series AEW Dark and AEW Dark Elevation.
All AEW programming, including PPVs, airs on Starzplay in the Middle East. Subscribe here.
Mike Sempervive speculated on today’s Wrestling Observer Live that this could lead to AEW streaming live events on the former HBO Max, now just called Max, in the United States, nothing that this is something the company has discussed in the past but would be unable to do with other sports companies it works with, such as the NBA or NHL, as they don’t have the same overall rights they do to a company like AEW.
AEW Collision: The return of CM Punk
Collision will be headlined by the return of legendary wrestling figure CM Punk, who previously was a top name in promotions ROH and WWE, before stepping away from the sports for a number of years before making a (somewhat) surprise return in All Elite Wrestling in 2021, according to Fightful.
While sources such as Andrew Zarian of F4Wonline.com have mentioned the billion dollar figure, Fightful cannot verify those numbers.
“AEW and WBD sources have not confirmed a dollar figure,” said a Fightful report.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Dave Meltzer confirmed the report as to the upcoming series, the announcement next week, but also could not. verify the dollar figure.
AEW Dynamite tonight
The company will be holding a major show this evening, May 10, headlined by the sixth cage match in the company’s four year history, from two former champions in Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega, the former previously of WWE, the latter previously of NJPW.
What is All Elite Wrestling?
If you only know WWE, let us fill you in. The promotion was born out of the 2018 event All In, in which independent wrestlers Cody Rhodes (now with WWE), Kenny Omega, and the Young Bucks organized a major 10,000+ audience show in Chicago, Illinois that ultimately served as a proof of concept for aspiring wrestling promotion owner Tony Khan, who enlisted the group, along with other legendary figures such as Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley, and rising stars such as Maxwell Jacob Friedman (the current champion) to join a new company, which launched in 2019.
Since that time, it has become one of the most reliably popular and consistently excellent wrestling promotions in the world, and though it lacks the mainstream recognition and casual fanbase that WWE has, it makes up for it in fervent passion of its own sizable fanbase, which has proven reliable and plentiful enough that Warner Bros. Discovery has apparently decided to sign its third major deal with the company, the last two coming before the previous deal had expired.
All Elite Wrestling proved that it is a world class company in the sport just this month, when its first-ever UK show, the first called ‘All In’ since that initial event and the first time as part of AEW, sold 60,000+ seats at Wembley Stadium in London, England, something no wrestling company has done since the then WWF did it in the early 1992.
Anyways, watch AEW. Also read this interview with one of its stars, Orange Cassidy, as it’s hilarious.