During a recent appearance at the Monaco Streaming Film Festival, AEW President commented on TNT being extremely happy with AEW’s ratings success, and more. You can check out some highlights from the event below:
On the conversation that started AEW and asking TNT about bidding on a WWE TV package: “I know, for me, [TV rights fees] was literally the conversation that started AEW. I went up to the president of TNT and TBS and talked to him about rights fees he was potentially looking to spend if he bid on a WWE TV package. And he wouldn’t have gotten it anyway because I think he was willing to spend over maybe $150,000,000. He wasn’t prepared to spend the $205,000,000 it actually ended up being. And furthermore, it made more sense what I was saying to him, which was, ‘If that’s the case, if you’re really prepared to spend that much kind of money, I think it would make more sense for us to talk.’ And I had a conversation I never dreamed we were going to have, but I said, ‘You know, we should sit down and talk about what if I started a wrestling company. We can build a startup and put a lot less money into it and get a lot more value. Which is true, and I’ve delivered that value.”
On TNT being happy with AEW’s ratings success: “I think if you look at the last two years of the shows TNT and TBS have launched, I believe you could argue the four most successful shows since they’ve launched have been Dynamite, Rampage, Rhodes to the Top, and Go Big Show, and all of those shows have AEW involvement, of course. AEW Dynamite and Rampage have both ranked #1 in their timeslot and both have consistently performed high for them. And not just been #1 in the timeslot, #1 for the entire day that they’re on, both shows. So I think those shows have been the most successful two shows they’ve launched, and as far as other shows that have finished in the top #15/top #20, consistently, Rhodes to the Top and Go Big Show are the other ones. I don’t know if they’ve launched any other shows that have done that well, so I think [TNT keeps doing business with us] because of our really strong performance. I would argue that we’ve been their best performer, so, that’s why they want more of us.”
