Tony Khan’s Big Announcements May Be a Tactic to Offset AEW’s Dropping Viewership

AEW continues to hype big announcements, but this could be a distraction from the company’s declining weekly numbers. Attendance is dropping, and despite Tony Khan’s ongoing promotions and efforts to generate interest, television viewership is also down.

Tony Khan has mentioned how close the WBD deal is to being finalized. However, The Wrestling Observer Newsletter noted that the deal is still not completed. This week, Khan talked about the biggest deals—plural—in AEW history, which likely refers to the media rights deal and the Australia show. He may have also been referencing the AEW All In show in Texas in 2025.

The report highlighted that “some of this is to detract from the 18-34 weakness getting worse, and that doesn’t portend to any turnaround in live attendances and hurts the overall ratings.” Dave Meltzer added that even if the 35-49 demographic remains steady, the 18-34 issue is a significant problem. AEW is no longer strong with teenagers, and it has never been strong with those over 55, who are always looking for something new.

Meanwhile, WWE shows no signs of slowing down. The gap in television production quality and overall show appearance between WWE and AEW is widening. WWE continues to pull in huge numbers and break records at every turn. With so many big shows on the horizon, it’s unclear if there’s even a ceiling for the Endeavor-owned company at this point.

We will continue to closely monitor whatever Tony Khan is planning next in the world of pro wrestling. There may be some unexpected announcements on the way, but so far, AEW has not delivered anything monumental, despite Khan’s promises of multiple breaking stories from the company soon.

Do you think AEW will secure a new television deal with Warner Bros Discovery? Would AEW survive on a different network? Share your thoughts in the comments section!