>>13707260It's certainly possible that's the thought process, but it would be a foolish one. Tech companies are much more willing to take on debt to expand and buy competitors because Tech companies love to cannibalize, acquire and merge with each other. Facebook bought Instagram, Microsoft bought WhatsApp. What was the last multi-billion dollar wrestling company that took out loans to buy another wrestling company for hundreds of millions? Hasn't ever happened. Likely won't ever happen.
Tony Khan doesn't need to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to expand, so interest rates don't affect AEW, which is good. But there is also a complete and total lack of suitors to bail him out if he decides he's losing too much money - nobody is going to take on those albatross contracts that ONLY WWE could salvage, but they wouldn't be interested at those prices. Tony would basically have to buy out a dozen contracts at 50-70%, for those who agreed; let some walk to WWE or the Indies; and keep the rest around for much lower pay.
That's AEW's path to profitability. WBD isn't going to bail AEW out out of the kindness of their hearts. "We were only going to offer you $120M/year, but it looks like you raised payroll by $30M/year, so we'll raise our offer by $30M/year as well" - not happening. WBD is not going to effectively guarantee Ospreay, Mercedes, Okada, etc, contracts just because. Their offer will be their offer, and it's up to Tony Khan to monetize outside of the US, merchandise, social media, sponsorships, video game, toys, and all the other avenues.
