Tony Khan: AEW Is On The Path To Profitablity Thanks To New Media Rights Deal

Tony Khan comments on AEW Rampage coming to an end for the time being. 

Tony Khan had previously confirmed the December 27 episode of AEW Rampage would be the final episode for the foreseeable future. 

Now, he’s opening up about the decision to sunset that particular weekly program in order to allocate more resources for AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision in the wake of the media rights renewal with Warner Bros. Discovery. 

“It’s a great situation for AEW. We’re getting a new media rights agreement that is huge for us, for many reasons. It’s a massive opportunity for AEW to be able to simulcast our shows and reach new viewers through the streaming service Max,” he told Bill Pritchard of WrestleZone during the media call ahead of AEW Worlds End. “It’s a huge opportunity for us and the deal was very favorable for AEW. We were able to get the rights fees that are many times larger than what we had in our first five years. It completely changes the financial picture of AEW and it’s the big target we have aspired to for many years. Part of that agreement is we would focus on these four hours [of AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision]. “

Tony went on to praise the recent ratings of AEW Collision and said that this will allow the company to restructure its calendar, again praising the new media rights agreement that has put the company on the path to profitability. 

“It is, in many ways, a reimagination of the calendar, but it’s also going to be great for the company. It allows us to really focus on Dynamite and Collision and put more resources into those shows and grow the company,” he said. “By getting right fees that are multiple times higher than we initially had, we put the company on the path to profitability and that’s really important. The company is going to be one of the most successful wrestling companies of all time, on the bottom line, and we’ve grown the business. We developed it and gone through the startup phase, and we had a great media rights deal for many years, and then we built, built and invested and invested in the company, invested in talent, invested in TV, invested in technology infrastructure, international growth, all with this year in mind. Now, we’re just days away from the thing that we all targeted. When I said the TV deal was in the red zone, that it was on the goal line. All those things proved to be true, and we put together this huge media rights deal that now we can make this a very profitable business for many years to come.” 

Fans can check out the lineup for the final episode of AEW Rampage here. 

Check out the full card for AEW Worlds End 2024 here. Fightful will have coverage of the event on December 28. 

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