CW Network Had Talks With Tony Khan Before WWE NXT's 5-Year Deal

The big story of the week is WWE striking a 5-year media rights deal with The CW to bring NXT to the broadcast network starting in October 2024. The deal is said to be worth approximately 20-25 million a year, a significant increase in rights fees for WWE's developmental brand.

The CW deal is a huge score for WWE, but a report at Haus of Wrestling reveals that CW execs spoke with AEW President Tony Khan before entering into advanced talks with WWE.

AEW is approaching the end of their current media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, which makes it an interesting time for the company. Tony Khan has expressed optimism about the AEW-WBD relationship.

In addition to AEW's live weekly programming (Dynamite and Collision), there are content offerings that AEW will be shopping around, including their PPV events and growing tape library. There's also Ring of Honor, which could be 'spun off' with its own rights deals, like WWE just did with NXT.

According to Haus founder Nick Hausman, the CW network has been interested in wrestling programming since last year, and approached Khan about carrying ROH's weekly show. The report states that the talks were 'pleasant' enough, but never got too far, because Khan didn't want to enter into negotiations for ROH before finalizing the next AEW TV deal.

"...From what we understand, Khan did not pursue talks with The CW, as he refuses to seriously entertain new deals for ROH until AEW TV rights are in play, which will be in 2024. Khan feels that by waiting, he will have more options and leverage in the marketplace," said the report.

As Khan looks to focus on AEW's new TV deal, it has put ROH's future in limbo. The brand is releasing taped episodes through their streaming service Honor Club for a 9.99 subscription. However, the growth of ROH has seemingly stagnated.

ROH's next pay-per-view event will be ROH Final Battle on December 15. Unlike the last few events, the upcoming PPV will not be on Bleacher Report. Instead, fans must have an Honor Club subscription to watch the show.

Luckily for fans, ROH shared in a press release that ROH Final Battle will be on their streaming service with no additional cost. It's unclear, with the PPV being on Honor Club, if AEW will help build towards ROH's show for unaware viewers. Khan will also be looking to focus on AEW Worlds End, which will occur on December 30.

Hopefully, both AEW and ROH will have a deal in 2024. For now, fans will have to wonder what ROH's future would be if they were on CW.