Vince Russo has claimed that Tony Khan is paying for air time for his AEW television shows.
In a recent interview on Busted Open, former WWE head writer Vince Russo reignited his conspiracy theory that Tony Khan is single-handedly financing the promotion’s new show, AEW Collision. Russo’s belief stems from the declining viewership numbers of the program, leading him to suspect that Khan is digging into his own pockets to keep it on the air.
Russo pointed out that since the launch of AEW Dynamite in October 2019, the viewership base of AEW has remained stagnant, failing to grow over the past four years. He emphasised that any other television show with such stagnant ratings would have been cancelled long ago. Russo stated:
There’s no question in my mind that Tony Khan is paying for TV time. The dude’s a billionaire, he wants these shows on the network.
The former head writer further asserted that no TV network would retain two shows, namely AEW Collision and AEW Rampage, with average weekly viewership numbers below 500,000 unless there was an undisclosed agreement in place.
Russo cited the recent parting of ways between FOX and WWE on a WWE SmackDown extension as evidence to support his theory. FOX reportedly expected WWE to maintain an average of 3.5 million viewers per week, a milestone rarely achieved by the show. Russo concluded:
There’s no way they [WBD] are happy with the numbers AEW gets.
However, it is worth noting that last week’s episode of Collision experienced a slight resurgence, garnering a two-month high in ratings with an average of 562,000 viewers. Yet, the 500,000 milestone has only been surpassed twice since July 29th.
Does Vince Russo Watch AEW?
Vince Russo has spoken in the past about watching AEW and claimed that watching it was a “massive waste of his time.” He claims that he did watch the show initially but has since stopped watching due to losing interest in the product.
H/t to WrestlingInc.com