The natural reaction from people in relation to this deal has been one of negativity due to one company basically owning the majority of Hollywood, something that movie fans have been very worried about. But when it comes to AEW, it seems a bit early for people to worrying about the sky falling down on the company.

One thing I have always believed is no matter what happens with Paramount, WBD, Netflix, or anything to do with a potential purchase of a media conglomerate, AEW will probably be fine. Tony Khan and the Khan family is a lot more wealthy than people think, and Tony is a man who is more than happy to spend his money as freely as he wants. What I’m getting at here is that no matter what happens with this current deal, in the long-run, AEW will continue for as long as Tony Khan wants it to. AEW is, at its core, a passion project for Tony, meaning that if he wants to own a wrestling company, he will own a wrestling company.

Sure, that might mean that if things do go south for AEW when it comes to negotiations in 2027, or 2028 if the extra year option is exercised on the current deal, it won’t operate on the same level as it has been since 2019. Think of how TNA started to go downhill in the 2010s after that company lost its deal with Spike TV, everyone thought that would be the end but TNA clawed its way back and is now in the best position its ever been. That could be a similar fate for AEW if the Paramount deal doesn’t work in its favor. The weekly programming might migrate to YouTube, a bigger deal with Amazon Prime might be created, or HonorClub might be turned into a full-blown AEW streaming service, but whatever the result may be, AEW will still exist in some capacity.

Will the current product change at all? Probably not. The recent string of anti-ICE chants might not go down well when the company is now owned by a good friend of Donald Trump, but given how a large number of Meltzer’s findings point to AEW using their lack of worth compared to something like the UFC, the company could use that as an advantage. AEW can operate as normal and only ever come under intense scrutiny if something breaks out of the wrestling circle like how the Brody King/MJF match did at the start of February. 

I could be incredibly naïve with my thinking on the future of AEW, but we live in a world where it’s incredibly easy to create content and AEW is now a firmly established brand known the world over. It won’t just disappear overnight, not with the financial backing from the Khan family and the number of wrestlers that have fought to keep the company going over the past seven years. AEW will be fine…probably.