The Un-billionaire

By Scott Keith on 1st June 2023

So I am confused. Everyone was celebrating Tony for getting a billion dollar deal for the new TV rights contract and it would be announced at the Warners upfront. But not only was there no billion dollar deal, there wasn't even a new TV deal negotiated.

TK has recently said Collision was an add-on to the existing deal that runs the same length, and they would be paid additional money for it. I feel like when Rampage was announced they touted how much extra money they got. Is it safe to assume if TK hasn't released the numbers its prob not a great deal? And how did everyone reporting the new tv deal get it so wrong? Uncle Dave said the upfronts would be the most important day in AEWs history.

Also, do you think all the issues with Punk, like him getting pulled from promotional material and not announced at the upfronts, was TKs plan to get the attention off no deal announcement and on to something else? That be smart if so. Or do you really believe that after all this time Tony's had to work things out with Punk it could have really almost fallen apart due to Ace Steel?

I know some have reported Punk wanted to have it be a surprise like the first debut, but why announce it last night if that's the case? Obviously tickets sales weren't great, but it makes no sense this late in the game reversing course when you had already had the best chance to announce it at the upfront. Waiting to annouce the first location was already weird, why not just annouce both at the same time at least. Very curious decision making all the way around.

WWE attested in a new filing for the bullshit MLW lawsuit that AEW just signed a new TV deal for $240 million a year over five years. Maybe AEW just didn’t want to announce it because they’re a private company and it’s no one’s business?