Bleacher Report and WWE announced on Monday (September 28) a new multi-year partnership that will give Bleacher Report global highlight rights for all WWE programming.
According to a press release: “Bleacher Report will hold global highlight rights across WWE’s programming slate, including Monday Night Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, NXT and WWE Premium Live Events such as WrestleMania, with content distributed across Bleacher Report, House of Highlights and B/R Wrestling —Bleacher Report’s dedicated
wrestling brand and their associated social and digital platforms. B/R will also have a ringside presence at select PLEs.”
While the press release frames the deal as a win for both Bleacher Report and WWE, the agreement also raises some questions about AEW’s future. Bleacher Report is owned by a division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which also owns the networks TBS and TNT, which are the broadcast homes of AEW Dynamite and Collision.
AEW’s TV deal with WBD expires in 2027, and there has already been talk of the promotion’s future with WBD as the entertainment conglomerate might see a merger with Paramount. Last week, the merger moved a step closer to being completed when Paramount settled legal challenges brought by 12 states and the Writers Guild of America.
AEW CEO Tony Khan reacted to the news of the settlement by praising Paramount Chairman and CEO David Ellison as “somebody who loves professional wrestling.”
However, as veteran wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer recently noted, AEW might face some issues because Ellison is close with Ari Emanuel, the CEO of WWE’s parent company, TKO. On top of that, Paramount only recently began a multiyear broadcast deal with TKO’s UFC.
Writing in Forbes, journalist Alfred Konuwa noted that AEW’s current television deal with WBD expires at the end of 2027, so that while “Khan has little choice but to put on a happy face publicly…AEW must consider seeking as many streaming suitors as possible.”
Konuwa also added that AEW used to air its pay-per-view events on B/R Live before leaving the platform in 2024. Those events are now shown on WBD’s HBO Max.
Alex Varga, executive vice president at WWE, touted the deal by praising Bleacher Report in a press statement and saying the “partnership with B/R reinforces WWE’s commitment to bringing our content to a global audience.”
In its own statement, Bleacher Report said that “adding WWE to its portfolio reflects B/R’s broader strategy to serve fans across the full spectrum of sports and sports culture, particularly around properties that inspire passionate, year-round conversation.”
Even though Bleacher Report is now working more closely with WWE, POST Wrestling reported that a WBD spokesperson told them on Monday that the company’s current deal with AEW will not be affected by the move. The spokesperson also reportedly said WBD could someday reach a highlights deal with AEW.
But AEW fans may now be wondering if Bleacher Report can still service Khan’s promotion while committing more resources to WWE.
What do you think of WWE’s new deal with Bleacher Report, Cagesiders? Does this spell trouble for AEW’s upcoming negotiations for a TV deal? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
