Backstage Update on WWE’s New Deal with Bleacher Report & How It Affects AEW

As noted before, WWE announced earlier today that they have recently signed a new partnership deal with Bleacher Report for the exclusive global highlight rights of WWE’s programming on Bleacher Report’s social and digital platforms. Bleacher Report is currently owned by Warner Bros Discovery and has been partnered with AEW since the company’s launch in 2019.

Fightful Select reported that one WBD source spoken to stated that they believe the new deal between WWE and Bleacher Report will affect AEW positively because WBD will have more resources dedicated to wrestling.

This same source reportedly also stated that they do not expect this new deal to affect conversations around an AEW TV extension deal, which is something that won’t be happening for quite some time. AEW’s current television and media rights deal with WBD goes through 2027 with a one year option for 2028.

The Wrestling Observer’s Josh Nason reported that when asked for comments a WBD spokesperson provided some additional details about WWE’s new deal with Bleacher Report and how it is not expected to impact AEW.

B/R is part of TNT Sports which is a separate division within WBD. While WBD has a “significant” relationship with AEW in the U.S. only, this deal with WWE is global. “One doesn’t replace or diminish the other.”

B/R has existing relationships with various sports properties that compete with each other from teams to leagues to organizations. They consider themselves a “broad sports platform” where those relationships enable to them to “serve fans across the full range of their interests” and “doesn’t require choosing one property over another,”

What B/R hopes to gain from the deal is to further broaden what it can offer content-wise to wrestling fans and “not redistribute a fixed amount of attention from one wrestling property to another.”

This same spokesperson reportedly also stated that there is no mandate for a specific allocation of posts or promotion within the deal and that B/R “will respond to the stories, talent and moments that matter to fans.”