Notebook: AEW’s Tony Khan claims WWE sticking its nose in his TV deal business

Oh, Tony Khan, when will you learn?

“I had a major member of the wrestling media mention to me yesterday that WWE is telling people, and I don’t know why WWE is telling people about our media rights deal,” Khan told reporters on a media call on Thursday, which was done to promote tonight’s Ring of Honor “Death Before Dishonor” pay-per-view.

He seriously said this.

Out loud.

We can guess the identity of the “major member of the wrestling media” (might it rhyme with “Dave Meltzer”?), so that’s one thing.

Another: even if this is true, which is highly doubtful, what is to be gained by going public with what comes across as whining?

“I don’t really know if it’s any of their business. I don’t really understand why WWE PR calls people and talks about my business. WWE PR is telling people that the deal is done? And the deal is done at the same level that it was gonna be, our previous deal. That’s not the case,” Khan said on the call.

Khan has, quite publicly, been in protracted negotiations with Warner Brothers Discovery, which owns TBS and TNT, the TV networks that have hosted AEW programming since the company’s launch in 2019.

WBD reportedly paid $45 million a year for the TV rights to “Dynamite,” AEW’s signature weekly show, and upped the figure to a reported $70 million annually with the additions of “Rampage,” in 2021, and “Collision,” in 2023.

Industry insiders are suggesting that AEW will likely land a new deal with WBD in the $110 million to $115 million per year range, though my analysis, published yesterday, pegs the value of AEW’s weekly programming closer to $215 million per year.

Whatever the value, the clock is ticking. You would think, if you were Khan, that you’d want a deal in place before Labor Day, just for the appearance sake of being rolled out with the new TV schedules that are traditionally launched in the fall.

What Khan is claiming WWE is doing here, then, is, trying to gum up the works.

Khan, by bringing attention to whatever WWE is or isn’t doing, then, would seem to be, unwittingly, playing into their hands.

“I think WWE PR really gets involved in a lot of things they shouldn’t get involved in, and I can tell you that is very untrue,” Khan said on the media call. “When we make a deal for AEW, it’s going to be a great deal with a big increase over what we’ve been doing. We’re in a really good position and doing great business despite what they’re doing to us.”