MJF has reacted to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter report claiming WWE-internal sources have been spreading word that AEW will not land a viable next TV deal, telling Shakiel Mahjouri that the leak appears to be a strategic move by WWE President Nick Khan and that the underlying report is contradicted by the actual state of AEW’s business.
Dave Meltzer wrote, “But another person in WWE noted to us this week that they have definitely spread word in the company among some if not many that AEW won’t be on Paramount/Skydance and question if they can get a viable deal elsewhere. One person there noted that people at the highest levels are talking like AEW won’t get another deal, but those kind of stories spread previously at the last negotiations, not that they wouldn’t get a deal, but that their deal would be at the same level or perhaps a lower level than the prior deal and instead they had a 2.3x increase.”
The Wrestling Observer noted in the same item that similar WWE-internal speculation surfaced before AEW’s last TV deal negotiation, and that the previous round ultimately ended with AEW landing a 2.3x increase rather than the lower-level deal the WWE-side speculation had predicted.
MJF told Shakiel Mahjouri that the narrative is news to everyone in AEW.
“I do laugh, I think I saw, and again, it’s a business, right? So, it’s dog-eat-dog. So TKO, WWE, what have you, their job is to make themselves look great, and to make us look bad. So, there’s a leak, ‘AEW’s struggling to get a TV deal.’ That’s f*cking news to me, bro. That’s news to me, that’s news to everybody on the roster. That’s damn sure news to Tony Khan. Because last time I checked, they’re f*cking over the moon with us right now. We do better numbers than f*cking almost everything that’s going on on a weekly basis on cable, because right now, as I was saying, the things that draw on cable are news and live sport.”
He then directly tied the leak to Nick Khan.
“I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a million times, I love Jolly Old Saint Nick, and I love the tricks he’s pulling out. I f*cking get it, it’s smart. But, it doesn’t mean that we can’t use our brains. It doesn’t mean that we can’t go, ‘Oh, this is being leaked intentionally to hurt the company that is the alternative.’ It’d be like if Coke out of the blue was like, hey, I don’t know if you guys knew about this, but Pepsi has ass water in it. Everybody would be like, where is that source coming from? It’s coming from Coke? Okay. I’m not gonna give much thought to this.”
The “Jolly Old Saint Nick” reference is the second time this week MJF has tied a Coke-and-Pepsi metaphor to the WWE-versus-AEW competitive picture. On the Ariel Helwani Show earlier this week, MJF framed the current wrestling moment as wrestling fans switching from “drinking Diet Coke” (WWE) to “trying Pepsi” (AEW) and finding the alternative “not bad.”
Tony Khan addressed the Wrestling Observer report at the ROH Supercard of Honor scrum on Friday, calling the WWE-internal speculation “not further from the truth” and saying he has been trying to be respectful but is choosing to turn the other cheek on the public WWE-side commentary.
