Add as a preferred source on Google Tony Khan has once again opened up about one of the most uncertain periods in AEW’s creation, when the company already had talent under contract but still did not have a television home in the United States.
Speaking with Nine.com.au, the AEW president said the biggest obstacle was landing the company’s first TV deal. Khan revealed that AEW entered 2019 with wrestlers signed, but no broadcast agreement in place, even after nearly a year of work on that side of the project.
“The biggest obstacle was getting the TV deal done.”
That changed in May 2019, when WarnerMedia reached a deal with AEW to bring Dynamite to TNT. The weekly show would premiere on October 2 of that year, airing from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET and officially launching the company’s television era.
Tony Khan says securing their TV deal was the "biggest hurdle" when launching AEW:
— WrestleTalk (@WrestleTalk_TV) June 2, 2026
"The biggest hurdle was to make the TV deal – I reached a point in early-2019 where I had signed the wrestlers, but didn’t have a deal.
"I had been working on the TV portion of it for nearly a… pic.twitter.com/LXzea7GZWv
The importance of that deal became even clearer just a few months later. In January 2020, WarnerMedia expanded its partnership with AEW through 2023, noting that Dynamite had reached nearly 32 million people in just three months.
Today, AEW’s relationship with Warner Bros. Discovery remains the foundation of its U.S. product. The most recent agreement kept Dynamite on TBS and Collision on TNT, while also adding simulcasts on streaming for American subscribers.
In other words, the obstacle Khan pointed to ended up becoming the central piece in AEW’s consolidation as the top alternative to WWE in the American market.