Instead of some sort of hostile takeover or forced exodus, Bischoff says, as most things in business do, the future of AEW after a WBD sale will almost certainly come down to the very simple measure of dollars and cents. “I think it’s far more likely somebody’s just going to break out a $13 calculator and start looking at the value,” he said. “When you take over a company, you do a complete, thorough audit from top to bottom and you’re looking at where your value is. Where am I losing money? And if I’m losing money, why am I losing money?”

For those leaning into a full conspiracy situation, Bischoff warns that it’s just not that complicated in the end. “The decisions will far more likely be the result of a financial team looking at it and coming up with their perspective,” he explained, “and then you’ll have an ad sales team that will essentially do the same thing and somebody will sit back and look at the data and go, ‘Ok, what makes sense and what doesn’t?'”

Ultimately, while there are plenty of uncertainties as this sale moves forward, nobody should be putting AEW in its grave prematurely, at least not over this. Instead, it will simply be a matter of the status of the company’s bottom line when the time comes. “That’s far more likely the outcome of any discussions regarding AEW and either Netflix or WBD,” Bischoff said, “than President Trump calling his buddy David Ellison [and] conferring with TKO or whatever the chain of communication would be. That’s fun to talk about and think about but it’s more realistically just gonna come down to math and a $13 calculator.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “83 Weeks” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.