>In recent history, it’s been WWE that has used the old “budget cuts” line when releasing its talent, but we can safely assume that was a lie. What isn’t a lie however is that Warner Bros Discovery, the company which owns all the channels AEW is aired on, is actually undergoing some major budget cuts.

>As Dave Meltzer explained on Wrestling Observer Radio, this is very bad news for AEW and its fans. He said:
“Really the biggest stuff is the WBD (Warner Bros Discovery) news which, if you’re an AEW fan, the last two days… not good news at all. We knew that they were gonna do a slashing of the budgets, but it really feels like TNT is – whatever is the prestige programming that TNT had – that’s going to be out the window and, I just have this feeling aside from the NBA, that TNT’s just gonna be another station on cable as opposed to… and TBS, which were kind of like cable powerhouses. It looks like they just wanna slash things, and CNN too for that matter.

“They’re slashing everything. HBO Max is… I guess they’re gonna merge it but a lot of the executives at HBO Max are gonna be gone. A lot of the budget from HBO Max is probably gonna be down.

“They’re really trying to cut a lotta lotta money, and they know that the one thing that they feel they have to keep, which is gonna cost them a lot of money, is the NBA. So it’s going to be very interesting to see… it’s probably the worst time possible to go in there and ask for a big raise now. It’s going to be very interesting.

“I don’t see AEW being canceled. Most weeks it is the most popular show, unless it’s during NBA season, it’s the most popular show on either TNT or TBS, so you’re not gonna cut your highest rated show. I mean it’s possible, I’ve seen it happen, but it’s probably not gonna happen.