Tony Khan spoke about its expanded relationship with WarnerMedia after news broke that Dynamite will move to TBS in the new year while a new one-hour program will launch on Friday nights in August.
On his weekly appearance for Busted Open Radio, Khan spoke about the new deal stating that the existing one was re-negotiated and indicating that there were “very fair financial considerations” for AEW in moving networks:
So, I have renegotiated our contract with TNT and TBS and we have made a great agreement and I’m very excited about it. First of all, we are launching a third hour of wrestling that I’ve talked about a lot. It will be Friday nights at 10 pm. It will be in addition to Dynamite on Wednesdays 8-10. So, we’re launching a new show called ‘Rampage’. I’m really excited about it and I wanted to do it for a long time, and it was part of our original extension over a year ago. So, we’re doing another show Friday nights [at] 10 pm called Rampage and we’ll continue doing Dynamite Wednesdays 8-10.
In 2022, and this is a great deal they put together, and some very, very fair financial considerations for us in this. We will be moving to TBS with both shows in 2022. Dynamite and Rampage in 2022 will go to TBS. But we will not be leaving TNT because we are adding another great thing for wrestling fans quarterly – and I’m not sure what night they will be on – but you know, in the past there had been great super card specials for wrestling fans like Clash of the Champions or Saturday Night’s Main Event, the Main Event, the Battle of the Belts. We are going to have our own super card series and we’re going to have quarterly super cards still on TNT.
Khan also spoke about the option of extending Dynamite to a three-hour program, which was offered to the upstart promotion but a decision that Khan did not think was best suited for AEW:
We knew that another show was coming this year and I’ve been saying it for a long time that we were going to add another night, one hour. I didn’t want to do three hours of Dynamite. They asked at one point if I wanted to do three hours of Dynamite, it came up about doing a third hour and I said, ‘I really believe in doing it on another night’. This timeslot is really good for the fans to keep a great night of wrestling fresh on Friday nights and so, at 10 pm, you’re going to have a great option to come watch Rampage. I promise Rampage isn’t going to be a secondary show, Rampage is going to be the partner of Dynamite, the equivalent of Dynamite. We have these two strong franchises – Dynamite and Rampage – and they are our two weekly core properties.
“I didn’t wanna do 3 hours of Dynamite…it came up about a 3rd hour & I said, ‘I really believe on doing it another night’.”
Talking to @davidlagreca1 & @TheMarkHenry, @TonyKhan broke major news on the future of @AEW Television 😮#AEWDynamite @tntdrama @TBSNetwork #AEWRampage pic.twitter.com/41Pj0qJf32
— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) May 19, 2021
