As it approaches its 250th episode of its flagship show, Dynamite, AEW finds itself at a crossroads. Screen grab: AEW Dynamite

As All Elite Wrestling prepares to celebrate the five-year anniversary of its flagship show, AEW Dynamite, on Wednesday night, the pro wrestling promotion appears to be on the verge of revealing historic news.

According to Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp (subscription required), an official announcement regarding AEW’s new media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery is imminent and could come as early as Wednesday afternoon.

AEW’s new deal with WBD has been a longtime coming, with the two sides having negotiated for the better part of the past year. After first launching Dynamite on TNT in 2019, AEW received an extension in January 2020 that runs through the end of this year.

In time since Dynamite‘s first episode in 2019, AEW has added two weekly shows with Rampage and Collision both airing on TNT, while Dynamite now airs on TBS. It has also been speculated that WBD owns a stake in AEW, which the pro wrestling promotion’s owner and president, Tony Khan, has neither confirmed nor denied.

While Khan had stated as early as June that AEW and WBD were in the “red zone” on a new deal, the two companies ultimately exited their exclusive negotiating window without an agreement. Still, all indications have been that AEW would remain with WBD, which is looking to bolster its collection of live rights after failing to re-up with the NBA.

To this point, many of the details regarding the new deal remain unknown, although Sapp has already reported that Dynamite and Collision will be simulcast on WBD’s Max streaming service. Khan has also revealed that the deal will not only make AEW profitable for the first time in its history over the course of the agreement, but also the second-most profitable pro wrestling promotion of all time behind WWE.

There’s also the possibility that AEW could extend its media rights outside of WBD, with the promotion having recently been linked to Fox. In the meantime, we’ll wait to see the new details regarding AEW’s new WBD deal, which certainly appears to be a cause for celebration for the company.

[Fightful Select]

About Ben Axelrod

Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.