TNT president discusses new All Elite Wrestling deal; The future Media Man Int

TNT president discusses new All Elite Wrestling deal; The future - January 2020

Kevin Reilly spoke with entertainment media firm Variety about the new deal with AEW; Extended to 2023

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by Greg Tingle

It's the news many professional wrestling fans the world over have been waiting for - All Elite Wrestling is staying on the air and its business is becoming significantly stronger.

Kevin Reilly is the chief content officer for HBO Max and president of TNT, TBS, and truTV. He spoke to Variety recently about the new deal his company inked with Tony Khan's All Elite Wrestling. Reilly also talked about the second AEW show WarnerMedia plans to broadcast in the near future:

“I just had this idea that this was the time to invest,” Reilly told Variety. “This is a startup. It’s already over-delivered out of the gate. That’s really when you want to hit the gasoline a little bit. The guys already have ideas about additional talent and things they want to do and I wanted to incentivize them as a partner to do that. We also wanted to gave fans and talent who potentially want to come work with us the sense that this is here to stay. You can invest in it, it’s here to stay, and it’s only going to get better.”

Reilly on AEW Dark to the network rather than YouTube.

“We just figured, ‘Let’s bring it onto the network and make it a place where you truly plant up and coming talent,’” he continued. “I think we’ll start doing more packages there and filming some behind-the-scenes stuff, not for the matches that night but with other talent to plant stories and grow things that could eventually become another show in and of itself.”

Behind the scenes programming have proven popular in the pro wrestling genre, including Being The Elite and WWE's 'The Bump".

A news item from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter recently stated, however, that Dark will continue to air on YouTube and a second show broadcast by WarnerMedia will extend tapings to 4 hours every Wednesday night.

This is most welcome news for the AEW brand and its fans as the wrestling world heads towards what has been traditionally called WrestleMania season, in reference to the WWE powerhouse. A WrestleMania main event many fans want to see is Roman Reigns vs Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.

All Elite Wrestling's top stars include Chris Jericho, MJF, Cody Rhodes, Jake Hager, Jon Moxley, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, 'Diamond' Dallas Page, Luchasaurus, Adam Page, Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin, and, Pac and Kris Statlander.

AEW is known for pushing creative boundaries and more adult and risqué themes. Some may say its the difference between Quentin Tarintino and Disney or Mad Mex and McDonalds. What will you be eating for dinner tonight? Clearly the AEW brand plans to stay in business for the long haul.

AEW is understood to also be exploring a dedicated AEW streaming channel, as well as a videogame deal and action figures, adding to their already popular t-shirt offers.

Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega are involved in elements of marketing, merchandising, cross media and other strategic alliances. Jericho is getting ready for his annual Jericho Rock N Rager cruise at sea which includes wrestling and music.

AEW top brass Tony Khan has a strong background in professional sports, sports stats, and many of the AEW management enjoy a track record of success in media, marketing and merchandising.

The AEW - TNT deal is understood to have added at least another $100 million to the AEW coffers.

*press release

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