Rumors have run wild this week regarding possible talks between Warner Brothers Discovery and WWE. WBD owns TNT and TBS, which air AEW content, and Haus of Wrestling has reported that Raw could wind up on either of those channels next year. If WBD can acquire the TV rights to WWE Raw, we have heard that AEW could be moved to Discovery. It is also possible Tony Khan will find a new TV home for AEW outside the WBD bubble. As previously reported by Haus of Wrestling, Khan plans to bundle AEW and ROH together and go to market with both early next year. One man who has been outspoken about the situation Khan finds himself in is former WCW President Eric Bischoff.
On his 83 Weeks podcast, Bischoff gave his thoughts on the smoke looming around talks between WBD and WWE.
“I absolutely believe that Warner Brothers Discovery was one of the initial corporate interests in acquiring, along with Endeavor, in acquiring WWE,” he began. “So, that’s a big dot. That puts a level of interest because anybody thinking about acquiring, at that time, obviously, WWE, knew what they were getting into, in terms of the scope of that deal; costs of that deal.
“The fact that WBD, in my opinion, was one of the initial media companies involved in the process of a potential acquisition leads me to believe that WBD’s interest in this possibility predates any of Dave Meltzer’s cryptic tweets or any of the other stuff that we’re talking about now. But what we’re talking about now, I think, started a long time ago.”
If you use any quotes from this article, please give a h/t to Haus of Wrestling and credit 83 Weeks
You can check out Rumor & Innuendo episodes from this week for more analysis on this story. Rumor & Innuendo records live Monday through Friday at Noon EST before being uploaded to the Rumor & Innuendo podcast feed, available on all major podcast platforms.
The live recording and immediate replay can be found on the @WWECreativeish, @WrestlingHaus, @Nick_Hausman, @AdFreeShows, and @rumorinpod X accounts, as well as the Haus of Wrestling, Ad Free Shows, and Rumor & Innuendo YouTube channels.