Many within wrestling are wondering what the holdup is regarding AEW's purported new television deal with Warner Brothers Discovery. There have been no press conferences or media calls, and allegedly no ink to paper yet, but neither side has denied that negotiations are ongoing. Tidbits of the deal have been slowly trickling out online, which strikes WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff as unusual.
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On his "83 Weeks"podcast, Bischoff elaborated on why the absence of pushback on these leaks seems strange.
"Typically, when you're in a negotiation period, no network wants you revealing any details of that negotiation,"Bischoff said. "There is so much information being leaked out. That is surprising. Because when you think about it, if you're Warner Brothers Discovery, you're still negotiating with other independent producers and other studios for content. You don't necessarily want people that you're negotiating with for other content to have any insight as to the amount of money that you're paying anybody else. ... so it's really weird that this information is being leaked out."
The recent Puck report suggests the new deal should be financially beneficial for AEW, but the details weren't enough to convince Bischoff that it would make AEW profitable. He estimated their talent payroll somewhere between $100 and $110 million, and when factoring in costs of production, travel, and staff salaries, Bischoff guessed that AEW's overhead was still too high. He said a fanbase that seems to be losing enthusiasm certainly isn't helping.
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"It's not going to make their shows any better,"Bischoff said."If you look at 'Collision,' if you look at 'Rampage,' if you look at 'Dynamite,' I would say if you averaged them together, they're all losing about 30-38% of their audience year over year. At this rate, at the end of their three-year deal, they'll be about 11 people watching," said the Hall of Famer.
