On yesterday’s episode of Rumor & Innuendo, I spoke about some of what I have been hearing regarding WWE talking to Warner Brothers Discovery. I have heard that on Monday, a meeting between Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Nick Khan, and TKO COO Mark Shapiro took place in New York about Warner securing the TV rights for
WWE Raw. The meeting was said to go well, and Warner relayed their admiration for
CM Punk, who just re-signed with the promotion two weeks ago after being terminated from AEW.
I spoke with a higher-up WWE source yesterday morning and was told that the information was “very inaccurate.” One of the details pointed to as inaccurate was the internal schedules of Levesque, Khan, and Shapiro, which apparently did not put them together in New York on Monday. Doubt was also cast that Punk had the kind of influence to cause someone like WBD CEO David Zaslav to abandon support of AEW and back WWE.
This morning, much of what I reported on yesterday’s show was reported elsewhere as fact, eliciting an unprompted text from the same WWE source saying, “This is all very strange.” During a follow-up phone call, it was relayed to me that WWE executives may be “kayfabing” those in the company by altering their internal schedules, but that was just speculation. If these talks are happening, they are protected at the highest level.
Earlier today, Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that Punk will be in LA this week for a house show and will likely be meeting with WBD executives while in town. It is worth noting that WWE’s Holiday Live Event Tour show in LA does not occur until Saturday, December 30. We are told by those close to Punk he is in town to do the house show, but they did not respond when pressed about potential meetings.
Lastly, the vibe we have been given is that AEW is in danger of not being renewed by WBD for TNT or TBS. One scenario that was given to us was that WWE Raw would move to TNT or TBS, and AEW would be moved to Discovery. Two higher-up sources in AEW that I spoke with said that was news to them and not something they had heard. Another said, “Only person who really knows is Zaslav.”
Last month,
Haus of Wrestling exclusively reported that Tony Khan passed on talks with The CW about bringing ROH to their network. His reasoning for passing on the talks was that he wanted to take ROH and AEW to the market together early in 2024 when AEW’s TV rights became available. That means that Khan has yet to secure a new deal with Warner and is open to taking his content elsewhere.
