Vince Russo Speculates Tony Khan Paid WBD for AEW Collision

On a recent episode of The Wrestling Outlaws, Vince Russo shared his theory regarding how AEW owner Tony Khan managed to secure additional programming on TNT for AEW Collision. Russo believes that Khan is independently financing the new venture on Saturday nights, suggesting that he is personally buying the television time.

Russo argued that as a billionaire, Khan has the financial resources to pay TBS and TNT more money than they could make from advertising for those shows. He believes that Khan’s willingness to invest significant amounts of money is the only way he could have convinced the networks to add more wrestling programming. Russo even went as far as speculating that Khan might eventually purchase the network itself to have full control over AEW programming, including a potential show called AEW All Access.

While his co-hosts expressed some skepticism about the theory, Russo continued to elaborate on his belief, drawing a parallel to the WCW era and how Ted Turner acquired ownership of TNT. He suggested that Khan could follow a similar path and become the owner of the network.

“Tony Khan is buying the television time. Period. End of story,” Russo said. “This is a billionaire, ‘money is not an object’ [thing] and he is paying TBS and TNT more money than they could make in advertising for those shows … I worked with television executives. I was working with freaking USA Network a year ago. A year ago, I was having conversations with those running USA Network. You’re not going to reward a franchise when you have a history of ratings that continue to go down.”

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It’s important to note that this theory from Vince Russo is purely speculative and has not been confirmed by any official sources. It’s always best to take such theories with a grain of salt until more concrete information is available.

As AEW Collision makes its debut and AEW continues to expand its presence on TNT, the details behind the partnership between Tony Khan and the network are likely more complex than a simple financial arrangement. The collaboration between AEW and TNT has been successful thus far, and it remains to be seen what further developments may arise in the future.

What are your thoughts on Vince Russo’s theory about Tony Khan personally financing AEW Collision and potentially purchasing the network? Leave a comment below.