How Possible WBD Merger Could Affect Potential WWE & AEW TV Deals

WWE/AEW

With a recent meeting between Paramount and Warner Brother Discovery executives, the impact on WWE and AEW has been discussed.

With Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) currently the broadcast partner for AEW, and with recent reports indicating that WWE and WBD have been in talks, there has been a lot of speculation about upcoming AEW and WWE TV deals.

Amid speculation that WWE Raw could find a new home on a WBD network for September 2024, it has now been reported that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav met with Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish on Tuesday in New York City to discuss a possible merger.

The talks may be “still early and may not ultimately result in a deal”, but the impact of a potential merger was discussed by Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio.

Exploring what is know about the potential merger in his conversation with host Jim Valley, Meltzer stated:

“They’re in merger talks, the first stage. I don’t anticipate that whatever happens, I don’t think that this potential merger is going to affect (potential WWE or AEW TV deals) because it’s going to take time to put that together.

“WBD will have to make whatever decision they’re going to make prior to that ,number one, and number two, it appears, because WBD is a bigger company than Paramount when it comes to financial value.

“They’ll be the ones making decisions anyway, so there’s not going to be new people making the decisions.

“The story is of course huge like all these merger stories are, but as far as WWE and if Raw ends up on WBD or does AEW end up on WBD, I don’t think this merger will play into that story.”

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The report by Axios, based on multiple sources, notes that the merger would not be an equal one, with WBD having almost three times the mark value of Paramount.

Tony Khan has recently opened up about AEW’s relationship with WBD, saying that it is “really strong“.

WBD has announced that ‘Big Little Brawlers‘, a series featuring athletes from the Micro Wrestling Federation, will air on Discovery from January 9. 2024.

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• WBD
• Paramount+
• Warner Bros. Discovery
• AEW
• wwe

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