All Elite Wrestling will have a television home with TNT and will also live-stream its major events on B/R Live.
As expected, All Elite Wrestling announced their partnership with WarnerMedia (Turner) on Wednesday. The deal includes a weekly television program on TNT as well as live event streaming on Bleacher Report’s B/R Live app.
Per the official announcement, “WarnerMedia will provide exclusive multi-platform access for fans to watch AEW events, airing live weekly matches on TNT in prime time, as well as streaming them through WarnerMedia’s B/R Live and on pay-per-view. A leading digital sports enterprise, B/R Live’s high fan engagement will provide an invaluable opportunity to build AEW’s audience.”
This includes B/R Live being “the exclusive digital streaming partner” of AEW’s Double or Nothing, the company’s inaugural event, on May 25 from the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The show, along with others, will also air on pay-per-view.
AEW President and CEO Tony Khan commented that, “AEW is about more than wrestling.
It’s about a movement fueled by wrestling fans who have been underserved and perhaps even
disappointed by what the industry has produced in recent years,” indicating that the company will indeed be competing with the current worldwide leader in sports entertainment, WWE.
The release also provided further information about AEW’s goals in the pro wrestling sphere:
"“AEW offers fans less scripted, soapy drama, and more athleticism and real sports analytics, bringing a legitimacy to wrestling that it has not previously had. Wrestlers will also be given more freedom to explore their characters and highlight their athletic abilities. Introducing statistics to wrestling for the first time ever, AEW will raise the stakes for its matches and deepen fan engagement by tracking each competitor’s wins and losses as the wrestlers pursue championships, analyzing their moves, assessing damage to their opponents, and providing insights into their winning streaks.”"
No start-date or day-of-week information was provided about AEW’s weekly show on TNT, but it’s expected that the show will air on Tuesday nights following WWE’s SmackDown Live moving from the USA Network on Tuesday nights to FOX on Friday nights in October.
TNT used to be a fixture in pro wrestling, serving as the home network for the now-defunct WCW Monday Nitro, which went off the air in 2001. And now, not only will fans have an alternative to the WWE, but also one that is looking to take a fresh approach to how pro wrestling is packaged and presented.