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AEW president Tony Khan said he is “very excited” about the pending merger between Paramount and Warner Brothers Discover after a settlement with California and other states was reached to allow the merger to move forward earlier this week. AEW currently operates under the WBD umbrella.
“I am very excited about it,” Khan told PWTorch columnist Sean Radican during today’s media call ahead of the AEW All Out PPV on Sept. 26.” I think it’s tremendous for all of us in AEW, and it means a really bright future for the company and for Paramount and Warner Brothers. It’s a huge process. I’m thrilled that AEW is a big part of Warner Brothers TV, and we’ve been on TBS and TNT now for seven years. And it’s really been an awesome addition to have AEW on HBO Max as well these past couple years.”
I talked about the success AEW has had since adding HBO Max as a streaming partner for TV and PPV. “And our PPV business now is celebrating one year on HBO Max,” said Khan “The first AEW PPV on HBO Max was AEW All Out 2025, and we’ve come so far in a year. All of our biggest pay-per-views have been in 2026. We’ve grown the business so much, and the biggest PPV we’ve done yet was the most recent show, AEW All In London. And going into AEW All Out, the growth of the company on HBO Max has been tremendous.”
Khan said that the growth of AEW viewership on TV has been excellent in the last year citing new viewers on HBO Max and the growth of viewership on TBS. “The viewership of AEW TV has been excellent,” said Khan. “We’ve had some of the best Dynamite ratings, in particular, in years on TBS and that’s in addition to the new viewers that we’ve added in that time on HBO Max since we went on that platform in 2025. And we’re seeing the best viewership on TBS in years going back to before we added those HBO Max viewers additionally.”
Khan said he would begin addressing the future steps AEW needs to take under the Paramount merger with WBD by looking at the great current TV deal AEW has in place. “And, as far as the future steps, we’ve got a great commitment in place for a TV deal that has been fantastic for AEW, as I’ve been talking about and that has expanded the viewership of the shows to include streaming on HBO Max simulcast with the live shows on TBS and Collision on TNT,” said Khan.
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“I think that going forward hopefully we’ll have all this settled soon and I’m really excited to work with the new Paramount Warner Brothers. I think together the companies will be stronger to compete in what is an unprecedented media landscape right now. And together, I think that they will be very competitive in what is a field of massive competitors.”
Khan believes the merger will be very good for AEW because AEW has been a strong performer for WBD. “And this I think is very, very good for AEW and AEW is a strong performer in the Warner Brothers family,” said Khan. “The demographic that I get all the reports on, it’s the very first line on every report I get from Warner Brothers Discovery, is 25 to 54 viewership and we were the number one show on cable last week in that demographic. And I think that certainly our performance and the excellent fan base and support we get from our fans makes AEW a really attractive property and I know that’s the case.”
Khan said that when Warner Brothers and Discovery merged, the Discovery executives were a big unknown to him. “And when Warner Brothers and Discovery merged and the Discovery executives came to Warner Brothers several years ago, that was a big unknown,” said Khan. “These were executives that I had never worked with. The NFL and Discovery had very limited interactions and partnerships at that point in 2022 compared now. And certainly for AEW, it was an exciting time. We were a young company, a hot company, as we are now. However, we were several years younger and looking ahead to a future with a company that had changed a lot.”
Khan said once the new executives from Discovery came in, AEW was one of the properties they were very interested in from the beginning. “And what was very exciting about it is AEW grew and the new executives came in,” said Khan. “AEW was one of the properties they were very interested in from the very beginning when Discovery joined with Warner Brothers in 2022. They created new opportunities for us that led to the creation of AEW Collision. We forged a new media partnership, and within that pact, as I’ve said, it increased our number of homes available for AEW massively by making AEW a presence on HBO Max.”
Khan said he is excited about WBD’s merger with Paramount because it is much less of an unknown to him because he has worked with Paramount head David Ellison previously. “And this acquisition (Paramount), I think for us, is very exciting for different reasons,” said Khan. “This is much less of an unknown to me. This is somebody I’m very familiar with and have a lot of respect for. Skydance has worked with NFL Films for years and that’s when I first met David Ellison through the partnership with Skydance and NFL Films.
“And was very impressed by him and stayed in touch. And then when Skydance and Paramount came together, when David Ellison bought Paramount, it brought the NFL and Skydance even closer together, as CBS is a fantastic and very long-term and historic media partner for the National Football League. And David Ellison running CBS has a fantastic relationship with the NFL.”
Khan said he believes he will work well with Ellison not only due to their familiarity with working with each other through the NFL, but also because Ellison is a big wrestling and sports fan. “So, he’s somebody that I’ve worked with in the past in football, and have had great experiences with and somebody who’s the same age as me, and is a wrestling fan and a big sports fan, and somebody that I believe is going to be a great leader when this closes,” said Khan. “So, for AEW, I think this is exciting because we grew in a situation where the new corporate leadership in 2022, at that time, over four years ago, was something of an unknown entity to us, and we really won them over immediately.
“It’s something I take a lot of pride in. We’ve been through several different regimes here. When AEW launched, AT&T was still in charge, and then it’s been a lot of change with Discovery coming in. There was a period of transition there during 2020, 2021, where a lot of changes were made before Discovery took over in 2022, and they’ve made a lot of changes over the years. And for AEW, they’ve been changes for the better clearly, as we’ve grown the company and expanded. Now we enter something that I consider more of a known quantity, and I’m very excited about it.”
Khan said that when time to take the next steps come, he’s confident that given how AEW has adapted under new leadership in the past that AEW will continue to be a great partner under Paramount. “I think we’ve proven that AEW is a feather in the cap of a media company, that we are a great partner,” said Khan. “And for me, I’ll work to make sure that AEW fits in any corporate structure. I’ll work very hard. And I think I’ve proven time after time that I am the ultimate corporate soldier.
“And, that is why AEW continues to grow and expand as the media landscape changes. And I think that’s why Warner Brothers, even as the company has evolved and changed, AEW has always been a very important part of the portfolio for years and years. And I expect that’s gonna continue with AEW and Warner Brothers for many years to come.”
If any quotes in this article are used, please credit PWTorch with an H/T for the transcription.
