‘Huge Big Picture’ Problem For WWE & AEW’s Futures

WWE/AEW

With WWE and AEW needing to negotiate with broadcasters for their media rights, a “huge big picture” issue has been identified.

WWE has recently announced that SmackDown will be returning to USA Network in late 2024.

Per their press release, it was noted this was a “five-year domestic media rights partnership that will bring Friday Night SmackDown back to USA Network beginning October 2024.”

With the AEW deal with Warner Bros Discovery coming up in 2024, it has previously been reported that the “Collision show on WBD is part of a new cash infusion for AEW, as well as an extension of the partnership between the two sides.”

Dave Meltzer has explored the issues for either company wanting to shop their products around.

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer looked at the “big picture” in the wake of the news that Showtime is dropping MMA and boxing, and sports in general, saying:

“The big picture story is huge, because what’s happening and is going to happen is… there’s only a finite number of stations that carry sports.

“For AEW, just an example, if something were to happen to WBD, Showtime would have been one of the suitors.

“Because when AEW first started, the two people who were willing to jump on board with AEW unseen as a product because of the success of All In – Tony Khan had a connection also obviously at TNT with Kevin Riley and that was a lot of it – but the other one was Showtime. Which was because many of the people at Showtime were very aware of what was going on in pro-wrestling and they thought, ‘Hey, this is a good thing to get involved in’.

“And if something was to happen with WBD, in theory, they (Showtime) probably could have been a place to go. But they’re not gonna be because Showtime’s out of the sports business.”

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Essentially, for both AEW and WWE, it’s one less station that could bid for their shows.

It’s also part of a growing trend of the decline of cable TV in favor of streaming platforms.

The news that Showtime was no longer going to air boxing and MMA was revealed on October 17, 2023, by Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports.

The contents of Showtime’s internal memo was published by USA Today’s MMA Junkie on the same day.

Showtime is the home of Bellator MMA and is owned by Paramount Global which owns Showtime as part of Paramount Media Networks.

According to MMA Junkie, a source “close to the situation” believes the sale of Bellator may “occur in the near future.”

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• media rights
• AEW
• wwe

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