AEW CEO Tony Khan clarifies the deal All Elite Wrestling received for AEW Collision.
Warner Brothers Discovery confirmed that AEW Collision, AEW’s third television show, will premiere on June 17, but additional details were unclear.
During the AEW Double or Nothing Media Scrum, Khan discussed the deal that AEW got for adding Collision to its programming lineup. He noted that there’s a new deal for AEW Collision, but it is for the same length of time as what they had before.
“I’m not really supposed to get into all the specific details of the partnership with Warner Brothers Discovery, but I would say that the time that’s left on the previous deal, the current deal is the same duration is what we were doing before, and it’s a new deal,” Khan said. “It’s a different scope than what we previously had with Warner Brothers Discovery which is exciting for us.
“So it created a new opportunity for us to do another two hours of Saturday night live wrestling, and it’s really going to change the company, but the length of the deal is the same as what we started with when we signed the extension in early 2020 right before the lockdown.”
Khan continued by stating that AEW is being paid well for AEW Collision and he noted that the new show will come with additional costs, but the company will be saving money by not producing AEW Dark and Dark Elevation. He also explained that the company will get some license fees
“Yes, we’re definitely being paid for Collision and being paid very well. [Laughs] In addition to Dynamite and Rampage, we got a new contract. I think it’s fair to say it’s more money, but it’s the same length of time. And I was very excited about it. It was a big opportunity for us. It’s certainly a very expensive thing to produce a great two-hour live TV show, and on the weekend doing it every week, it’s not going to be cheap, but it’s going to be great. I’m so excited about Collision. It’s going to be a great show.
“At five hours of television, it will be some added production costs. And now we’re not producing Dark and Elevation, so there is some cost savings there. But overall, yeah, there will be increased costs but also definitely increase revenue through not only the ticket sales on Saturdays and the merch sales and all those things, but also yeah through license fees that we’re making because of an incremental change increasing our compensation for Collision.”
The full scrum is available here:
Catch up on our coverage of AEW Double or Nothing here.
Khan recently discussed the addition of AEW Collision. Click here to see what he had to say.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the AEW Double or Nothing Media Scrum with a link back to this article for the transcription.
