Bischoff, of course, remains skeptical that any deal for AEW is already in place, and sees Khan’s comments as being indicative of one of two staunchly different realities. “If Tony Khan is convinced,” he reasoned, “and is absolutely sure of it that all three shows are gonna get a significant bump, he knows something that we all don’t know and we’ll be seeing them at the cable upfronts.” On the flipside, Bischoff, offered, “Or Tony’s delusional and is out there hyping something that he shouldn’t be hyping, making comments in public about a negotiation that should be [confidential].”

While skeptical (as he tends to be with AEW in recent times), Bischoff was keeping the door open that Khan may already, in fact, have such an ace up his sleeve, saying, “He may be right. If that’s the case, congratulations. We’ll find out.” By leaning on his own experience as a producer in the television industry, however, he expressed a lack of benefit to Khan’s potentially premature proclamation unless something was actually already done, as well as the public ever learning any specific numbers, as it would be a bit of a tell for competing programming, agents, advertisers, et al.

“We’ll only know those numbers if [WBD] wants the public to know them,” Bischoff explained. “I can’t imagine that there would be an upside to that. I don’t think that Tony Khan or anyone in AEW would be out there publicizing it if there wasn’t some provisions within their agreement that they only do so if they’re permitted to do so by Warner Brothers Discovery, which would normally be the case.”

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.