Brandon Thurston

If the NFLX+WB deal closes, a question is what presence AEW has on HBO Max following closing, and ultimately what impact the structure has on AEW's rights renewal which can be optioned through the end of 2028. Anyone with confident answers today is wishcasting (or podcasting).

"What does this mean for AEW???" Probably little immediately.

Assuming gov't approval, AEW's traditional distributor (TBS & TNT) is independent, streaming distributor (HBO Max) is owned by Netflix, WWE's biggest partner.

Expect at least 36 more months of AEW anxiety podcasts.

Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. Following the Separation of Discovery Global for a Total Enterprise Value of $82.7 Billion (Equity Value of $72.0 Billion) - About Netflix

Netflix announces it will buy Zaslav's cool studio co (incl. HBO & HBO Max, WB Studios) and not Gunnar's "ShitCo" (incl. TBS, TNT, CNN, etc.), the latter of which will become its own separate publicly traded company.

Subject to regulatory approval. about.netflix.com/en/news/netf...

Lawsuit claims John Cena’s theme samples song without proper credit or payment - POST Wrestling | Podcasts, News, Reviews | WWE AEW NXT NJPW Ahead of Cena’s retirement, plaintiff says WWE fraudulently induced musician’s estate into $50,000 settlement in 2017

NEW ORIGINAL REPORTING:

Lawsuit filed over sample used in John Cena's theme music
https://www.postwrestling.com/2025/12/04/lawsuit-claims-john-cenas-theme-samples-song-without-proper-credit-or-payment/

TNA’s deal with AMC | The Politics Behind Tanahashi vs. Okada | Pollock & Thurston - Wrestlenomics TNA inks multi-year deal with AMC. How close did WWE's Shinsuke Nakamura come to being the opponent for Hiroshi Tanahashi's retirement match?

TNA’s deal with AMC | The Politics Behind Tanahashi vs. Okada | Pollock & Thurston

Plaintiffs in merger lawsuit say WWE defendants are delaying. Records from Vince McMahon’s seized mobile device enter discovery. - Wrestlenomics Shareholders ask for extension to request documents as depositions of Nick Khan, Ari Emanuel, and Mark Shapiro await

TKO President Mark Shapiro will be deposed next week. WWE President Nick Khan the week after. Vince McMahon, Paul Levesque, Stephanie McMahon, and many others have already been interviewed under oath.

Plaintiffs are also asking for fact discovery to be extended. wrestlenomics.com/articles/202...

TKO CEO & Chairman Ari Emanuel is scheduled to be deposed tomorrow morning as part of the WWE merger shareholder lawsuit.

Plaintiffs allege Vince McMahon steered the process because only Ari would allow Vince to stay after transaction amid scandal. Vince denies the allegations.

Exclusive: San Diego budgeting $5 million to bring WWE Survivor Series to town - Wrestlenomics San Diego’s hotel tourism fund is contributing $650,000 for Survivor Series 2025, and records point to another $4.3 million for WWE’s stadium show at the Padres' stadium.

Exclusive from July: San Diego budgeting $5 million to bring WWE Survivor Series to town

Jordon Hudson, Bill Belichick And The Dunning-Kruger Effect The internet and social media age provided billions of people around the world the ability to attain knowledge at the tip of their fingertips. It's also provided a pathway to create people like Jordon...

wrote about Bill Belichick, Jordon Hudson and the Dunning-Kruger effect. also, I added some reflections since getting laid off from NESN. jasons-belated-takes.ghost.io/jordon-hudso...

The plaintiffs’ filing doesn’t explain what the records consist of or whether 6,500 is largely a count of individual text messages.

Plaintiffs in merger lawsuit say WWE defendants are delaying. 6,500 documents from Vince McMahon’s seized mobile device enter discovery. - Wrestlenomics Shareholders ask for extension to request documents as depositions of Nick Khan, Ari Emanuel, and Mark Shapiro await

Vince McMahon recently got back his mobile device that was seized by the feds in 2023. After it was returned to him in this past October, he produced ~6,500 documents from it as part of discovery in the shareholder lawsuit, the plaintiffs say.
wrestlenomics.com/articles/202...

AEW drops bid to trademark “Shockwave” after dispute with NWA - Wrestlenomics Trademark board ruling means AEW can’t revive its claim, ending yearlong dispute.

NEW: AEW voluntarily withdrew its application for the "Shockwave" trademark, ending the dispute with the NWA over the name.
wrestlenomics.com/articles/202...

Shareholder plaintiffs ask for order forcing WWE and TKO to produce documents from federal investigations into Vince McMahon - Wrestlenomics Shareholder plaintiffs ask for order forcing WWE and TKO to produce documents from federal investigations into Vince McMahon

Shareholder plaintiffs ask for order forcing WWE and TKO to produce documents from federal investigations into Vince McMahon

Plaintiffs want materials Nick Khan and Paul Levesque, among others, may have provided to the DOJ and SEC

All episodes of Collision here except the 67-min Oct 15 ep were >=120 mins.

MRC said: "we are not aware of any specific methodological adjustments that would treat long live sporting events differentially from long entertainment events."

Nielsen didn't comment.
wrestlenomics.com/articles/202...

Big Data + Panel versus the old method, side by side: How AEW and WWE measure under both - Wrestlenomics CW Network expresses frustration with Nielsen

Read the full article: wrestlenomics.com/articles/202...

Update with comments added from the CEO of the Media Ratings Council, confirming that Nielsen's Big Data is still accredited.

He wasn't familiar with the discrepancies in wrestling viewership under the new methodology but said they will consider those going forward.

Big Data + Panel versus the old method, side by side: How AEW and WWE measure under both - Wrestlenomics CW Network expresses frustration with Nielsen

Read the full article with episode-by-episode visualizations and insight from industry experts Patrick Crakes of Crakes Media and William Mao of Octagon: wrestlenomics.com/articles/202...

The CW Network expressed frustration with Nielsen in a statement to us for this report.

Exclusive: For the first time we look at how WWE and AEW has been measuring with the old Nielsen method. On average, Big Data + Panel has been lower by:

Collision: -6% total viewers, -2% in P18-49
Dynamite: -9%, -20%
NXT: -9%, -27%
Smackdown: -14%, -20%

Bushiroad financial results show New Japan stagnant but gains for Stardom - Wrestlenomics The sports division slipped slightly year over year, with NJPW attendance down and Stardom growing in revenue and profitability.

Bushiroad financial results show New Japan stagnant but gains for Stardom

The sports division slipped slightly year over year, with NJPW attendance down and Stardom growing in revenue and profitability.

Disappearing Signal messages and possible ‘Stunner’ group chat spark new dispute in WWE merger lawsuit - Wrestlenomics Shareholders say key executives used Signal’s auto-delete features during the merger process. Defendants argue the concerns are overstated.

Disappearing Signal messages and possible ‘Stunner’ group chat spark new dispute in WWE merger lawsuit

Shareholders say key executives used Signal’s auto-delete features during the merger process. Defendants argue the concerns are overstated.

Disappearing Signal messages and possible ‘Stunner’ group chat spark new dispute in WWE merger lawsuit - Wrestlenomics Shareholders say key executives used Signal’s auto-delete features during the merger process. Defendants argue the concerns are overstated.

NEW: Shareholder plaintiffs say key executives used Signal's auto-delete and may not have preserved messages properly during WWE's merger talks.

Their case alleges that Vince steered the TKO deal because it was the only path for him to stay with WWE.
wrestlenomics.com/articles/202...

For whatever it'd be worth to a hypothetical wrestling deal AMC reports 10.4M streaming subs, which seems to be U.S. investors.amcnetworks.com/news-release...

AMC traditional homes at 7: www.sec.gov/Archives/edg...

ESPN at 10 on PDF (at 8 on the page): otp.tools.investis.com/clients/us/t...

AMC Networks is publicly-traded. AMC was in 60 million U.S. households as of last Dec, so probably lower now. But that's just under about as wide as ever-receding cable coverage gets. (Disney reported 61M for ESPN last week.)

AXS TV is probably in half that many homes at most.

How do you see Donald Trump affecting a civil lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court?

What comments from TKO executives suggest about WWE’s early run on ESPN | Analysis - Wrestlenomics “It’s going to take time for ESPN to grow that platform the way that they want to grow it,” Nick Khan said last week.

What comments from TKO executives suggest about WWE’s early run on ESPN | Analysis

“It’s going to take time for ESPN to grow that platform the way that they want to grow it,” Nick Khan said last week.

Update on WWE shareholder lawsuit: Paul Levesque deposed, phone activity for number associated with Mark Shapiro subpoenaed - Wrestlenomics Depositions don’t automatically become public but may be used in future exhibits.

Update on WWE shareholder lawsuit: Paul Levesque deposed, phone activity for number associated with Mark Shapiro subpoenaed

Depositions don’t automatically become public but may be used in future exhibits.

Smackdown & NXT are down to a similar % in terms of viewership, though they both hover above other programs on their networks' primetime lineups.

What does any of this mean for media rights value? The question wasn't asked by equity analysts during TKO's earnings call last week.

But what about the men in the demo? Not much better.

M18-49:

But what about the other demo, P25-54? That's the one AEW talks about WBD actually focusing on in more recent times. Similar.

P25-54: