Tony Khan discusses his desire to see the relationship between All Elite Wrestling and Warner Bros. Discovery continue for years to come.
AEW programming has been on Warner Bros. Discovery Channels since the company launched its flagship program AEW Dynamite in October 2019. Over the years, Tony Khan has consistently discussed how important it was for him to bring wrestling back to both TBS and TNT for the first time since the demise of World Championship Wrestling in 2001.
During a recent interview with Fightful's Iridian Fierro for WGN Radio, Khan once again touted the success of the relationship and expressed his hopes to see the partnership continue for years to come.
"I love working at TBS and TNT so much," he began. "We do five hours Wednesday on TBS, and Friday and Saturday on TNT. We're having great talks with Warner Bros. Discovery. I just had great talks with them yesterday. I'm so blessed to work with these great people and as somebody who loves wrestling, it means a lot to me that we brought wrestling back to TBS and TNT. Know that so many of the listeners who are wrestling fans used to watch wrestling on TBS and TNT and for some of the really young fans, for a long time, almost 20 years, there was no wrestling on TBS and TNT. It's what I grew up on. It meant a lot with the launch of AEW, that we bring All Elite Wrestling every week, Wednesdays on TBS, and weekends on TNT."
Tony Khan also expressed great appreciation for David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery. Khan credited Zaslav with helping AEW expand its programming into Saturday nights on TNT with AEW Saturday Collision and said he considers himself blessed to work for "a great leader" like the WBD executive.
"I want to keep bringing the shows here as long as possible. We have a great partnership and we're having great talks," Khan continued. "I hope that we are with TBS and TNT for a very, very long time. We're really happy to be here and I'm really blessed to work for a great leader like Mr. David Zaslav, who has been so great to AEW, and helped us expand [with] more events and expand TNT Saturdays, and has helped us continue to have these great Wednesday nights on TBS."
The relationship between AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery has been great for wrestling fans but has not been without its challenges.
Total viewership for the episode of the episode of AEW Dynamite that aired on June 19, 2024 came in at the lowest number in the show's history for a non-preempted episode. Fans can read about the reaction from both the AEW side of things and the WBD camp at this link.
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