CNN confirms WBD ownership stake in AEW
In a story released Saturday discussing the role politics is taking in both WWE and AEW, a sentence in the middle of the article confirmed what has been known for some time: that WBD owns a portion of AEW.
The article on CNN’s website, an entity also owned by WBD, wrote within a paragraph that “(Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent corporation, owns a minority stake in AEW).”
AEW head Tony Khan has been asked about this for years on media calls, but has never confirmed or denied it. In those non-confirms, Khan has made a point to note that he owns 100% of the decision-making within AEW.
The question of how much WBD owns has not been answered, but if it was more than 10%, they would need to disclose that as they are a publicly traded company. It’s also unclear what rights they have with that ownership, whether the percentage they own increased with the latest media rights deal, and what would happen to the shares if AEW was to move to another media entity.
Since 2011, Josh has been a contributing editor to Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline.com and also hosts the Punch-Out podcast. He has also written for Fight Magazine, Bloody Elbow, Bleacher Report, and other websites. He's a 2000 graduate of the University of Maine, worked in pro sports, and once was an indie ring announcer.