00:00AEW double or nothing this Sunday what made you even think to start a wrestling league at a time
00:06and let's face it we have to acknowledge you got the 800 pound gorilla with the WWE
00:10why did you decide that we needed something else I wanted to bring wrestling back to TBS and TNT I
00:15grew up watching wrestling on TBS and TNT and have a really successful run Wednesday night
00:21dynamite on TBS is the longest running primetime pro wrestling show ever on TBS we're TNT and
00:28there's such a great history of wrestling on those channels thanks to the late great Ted Turner
00:32who was really a pioneer in cable and wrestling sports so many great ventures and bringing
00:40wrestling back to TBS and TNT is really important so we do Wednesday night dynamite every week on
00:45TBS we do Saturday night collision every week on TNT and I really wanted to bring the very best
00:52wrestlers and the best wrestling to the fans we say AEW is where the best wrestle yeah and we'll
00:58show it off this Sunday because our pay-per-views are the biggest and best shows this is double or
01:03nothing and this weekend is the seven-year anniversary of the first show in AEW oh wow I am curious
01:09though
01:09about your distribution model and particularly given some of the changes going on right now with
01:14Paramount Skydance and the relationship that they have with TKO and WWE when that contract is up I
01:20mean what is your goal in terms of making sure that in addition to your live events that the
01:25distribution is still there I'm very excited about Paramount acquiring Warner Brothers and Paramount
01:30and Warner Brothers coming together this is going to be great for AEW I think that the new company
01:36under you think they're going to stick by AEW 100% I really do and of course they have to
01:41come in and
01:42they're doing everything from a distance they're respecting the process so I know David Ellison I have
01:47a great relationship with him through the NFL because of course my family owns the Jacksonville
01:51Jaguars I'm on the fan engagement major events committee of the NFL we've worked with Skydance
01:56sports on NFL films for years and I'm excited about the leadership of David Ellison him coming in here
02:02and now having the power of HBO Max and Paramount Plus together it's more buyers for our pay-per-views
02:10more people watching the AEW shows and I think it's going to make TBS and TNT stronger cable channels
02:16with Paramount and David Ellison coming in I have to ask you just about sort of this boom in live
02:21sports I mean we've all talked on this show a lot about how TV has changed so much live sports
02:25probably one of the few things that's growing fast whether it's you know the NFL but even when it
02:30comes to wrestling as well you think that the trajectory that we're on with this can continue
02:35and I'm talking specifically for wrestling absolutely yeah it's a great time in the pro wrestling
02:39business we have such great fans who watch every week we have really great support we're a top
02:45cable program on Wednesday nights we have a top show on Saturday nights on TNT and also now with
02:51the streaming audience HBO Max has helped us make new fans our pay-per-views on HBO Max continue to
02:57grow the past two events we've done have been the biggest ones yet on the HBO Max platform and I'm
03:04excited because with Paramount Plus and new subscribers and HBO Max coming together I think
03:10it's going to be really even bigger and better time for AEW and the wrestling fans yeah I am curious
03:15too I mean I'm a lot older than you I mean I'm like you know the Dusty Rhodes days and
03:19you know
03:19Jimmy Superfly Snookleman all all those guys and you know what kind of attracts you to those types of
03:23things is obviously it's very colorful the storylines and and everything else here have you thought
03:28about I'm going to put you an idea have you ever thought about like an overlap you know kind of
03:32like uh you know uh you know you mash it do smash up with the NFL in some way uh
03:37you know you
03:37know I don't know maybe do a big halftime and I mean obviously you can't get the NFL players to
03:41commit to that uh during the game but that would be kind of cool right we've done a lot of
03:46great
03:46collaborations and I think you're on to something so just as an example just a few weeks ago we
03:51collaborated with PGA and TGL for AEW's Fairway to Hell and we brought the world of golf and pro
03:59wrestling together it was at TGL this was our Saturday collision show uh we do it every weekend
04:05it's uh TBS and TNT have the shows you got to see this show AEW Fairway to Hell where the
04:12wrestlers
04:13are slamming each other in the fairways the bunkers the wrestling ring is set up on the green
04:17yeah it was very unique and we can do more collaborations and to your point we've got AEW
04:23coming to Louis Armstrong Stadium yeah and uh the stadium which is which is a tennis stadium
04:28exactly I don't think the tennis players are going to go for that well the locker room and
04:31you know that everything's uh fair game so we'll be in the backstage using the stadium there's a
04:36stadium stampede and they'll use anything that isn't nailed down and even if it is nailed down
04:40we'll use it
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