Warner Bros. Discovery Set To Expand AEW Relationship

A new report suggests that not only does Warner Bros. Discovery like its relationship with AEW, they are looking to expand on it even more.

Earlier in the week, there were comments made by author James Andrew Miller, who has written several books about media while also working for USA Network in the past, saying that it wouldn’t surprise him if Warner Bros. Discovery had an interest in WWE programming.

In addition to that, Miller believed that if WBD obtained the right to WWE Raw and/or Smackdown then perhaps they could move a show like Raw off Monday nights despite the fact that Monday Night Raw has been a television staple for over 30 years. The WWE TV rights for Raw & Smackdown expire in October 2024, so it’s believed that there are negotiations going on about new deals.

Following Miller’s comments, there was skepticism about what he was suggesting with both PWInsider Elite’s Mike Johnson and Andrew Zarian of Mat Men Podcast both expressing doubt, which we covered here.

An update was provided by Fightful Select noting that there haven’t been conversations between WWE and WBD. Meanwhile, WBD airs AEW programming such as Dynamite on TBS on Wednesday nights and Rampage on TNT on Friday nights.

There will also be AEW Collision airing on Saturday nights on TNT starting in June with CM Punk set to return to be part of that show. A recent report suggested that WBD were the ones to push for Punk’s AEW return for the first time since his backstage fight last September.

According to the Fightful report, WBD is “gearing up to substantially expand their relationship with All Elite Wrestling from both a financial and content perspective.” There was a hint that this involves the new show Collision, in addition to possibly more content. That has led to people guessing that maybe there will be some sort of AEW streaming deal in the future, but that’s just speculation at this point.

WBD is clearly happy with AEW especially since they also launched the AEW All Access show last month, which has had several episodes so far that shows the backstage happenings in AEW.