AEW wasn’t pushed like Wardlow at a recent, important event…
AEW Dynamite is growing year-on-year and indeed increased viewership from last week amid fierce NBA competition – but certain details emanating from the WarnerMedia upfronts might scan as troubling. (For those unaware, upfronts are a gathering hosted by TV networks with the intention of allowing advertisers to purchase commercial time).
As a counterpoint, Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics – a credible and invaluable resource as it pertains to the economics side of professional wrestling – is under the belief that Warner supports AEW to such an extent that they already own a minor ownership stake in the promotion. Thurston expects AEW to procure a higher rights fee in 2023 and doesn’t believe they are going anywhere.
Conversely, Dave Meltzer seemed to lack the same confidence when running through two potentially related developments in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Firstly, beyond a banner listing a hit show from every night of the week, on which AEW’s Red Velvet appeared in the Wednesday segment, AEW’s presence at the upfronts was minimal. A plan of a strong push didn’t materialise; Meltzer states that AEW wasn’t pushed “at all”.
This might mean little – AEW might sell itself at this point, owing to its huge success on the TNT and TBS stations – but previous performance might count for little under the stewardship of CEO of Warner Brothers Discovery David Zaslav. Zaslav is reported to have remonstrated with executives for green-lighting a new Clint Eastwood movie – one not expected to turn a profit – under the basis that he is reliable and has performed well for the network historically. “We don’t owe anybody any favors,” Zaslav is purported to have said. Zaslvav is overseeing a cost-cutting mission in parallel.
AEW is lucrative – hence why it was awarded a rights fee widely considered to be under-paid in the first instance – but these latest developments aren’t worth popping any corks over.
Not just yet, anyway.
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