As noted before, Paramount Skydance had announced their official acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery following the company becoming the winner of the bidding process over Netflix this past February. WBD announced this past April that their shareholders had voted in approval of Paramount’s acquisition deal for the company. WBD is the current media broadcast partner of AEW.
NFL and Philadelphia Eagles reporter John McCullen initially reported that sports agent Nick LoPiccolo had claimed he had sources that stated AEW was given a heads-up regarding the sale of WBD in 2025. LoPiccolo had also claimed that Paramount was expected to not keep AEW nor renew their media rights deal with the company. LoPiccolo had also claimed that AEW CEO Tony Khan had told others that AEW is prepared to move to YouTube if needed as a temporary placeholder while seeking a new partner.
McCullen also initially reported that he did not know why Paramount could not carry both UFC and AEW due to them not having an exclusivity deal with UFC’s parent company TKO Group.
In an updated report, McCullen reported that those within AEW and WBD have refuted claims that WBD had informed Khan and AEW in the summer of 2025 that the plan was for WBD to be sold and others would be making decisions on further AEW programming.
Those spoken to outside of AEW also denied the rumors that WBD CEO David Zaslav personally informed Khan that a same was coming. Those same sources reportedly also stated that no showrunners were informed including Khan of WBD’s plans for a sale of the company.
McCullen reported that LoPiccolo being a vocal critic of Khan was the reason why this news was initially misunderstood and blamed it on being due to wrestling’s highly tribal fan environment.
McCullen also reported that the idea of AEW being given an early courtesy heads-up from a business partner to give them time to prepare contingency plans ahead of decisions that will be made by WBD’s new ownership on its own is not “inherently negative.” This reportedly also is not something that WBD could actually do since it would be against SEC rules.
AEW’s current media rights deal with WBD runs through 2027 with the option for WBD.
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