As noted last week, via Tom Maglio of The Wrap, All Elite Wrestling has been in “advanced talks” with Warner Media’s Turner Sports (TNT, TBS) group about a potential TV deal. It was noted that the weekly AEW TV show would likely air on TNT, but the deal had not been signed and was not imminent. It was also noted that the AEW TV show may not be year-round, indicating a possible off-season for AEW as they try to be wrestler-friendly.

The rumor of the show not being year-round was already killed by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter but Maglio appeared on the 411 Wrestling Interviews podcast this week and said AEW’s TV deal will likely see them pay for the TV time that they get on TNT, instead of Turner paying AEW for their show.

“As excited as people are, they have cool t-shirts and a cool roster, you know, but they’re unproven, let’s be realistic,” Maglio said. “My understanding based on the people I’ve spoken to is that it would be more AEW paying for its time on TNT than Turner paying AEW for its show. Another very good wrestling reporter and I had been talking about whether that would be the case or whether it would be a revenue share, and we’d both heard rumblings and talked to people. Maybe a couple of months ago it might have been a little bit of a different story. But the truth is, when you’re talking to Turner, [they’re] a very well-established, very well-off company inside of gigantic parent company…it’s not the UFC. It’s not WWE, it’s not MLB. They have MLB, they have NBA. They know what they have to pay for. And I think currently, AEW has way more to prove than Turner has in terms of trying to get them to come to their networks. I think AEW needs this deal more than Turner does.”

Meltzer also killed that rumor on his F4Wonline.com message board. Meltzer noted that the “time buy” report is false and that the situation is the exact opposite. Meltzer noted that networks are offering “tons of money” right now for weekly live programming and to get their streaming platforms off the ground. “That’s the reason this thing [AEW] is starting this year,” he added.

Meltzer also said one of the reasons the AEW TV deal hasn’t signed yet is “because of multiple bidders” and that also indicates strong interest in the product. We noted before, via Prowrestling.net, that Showtime was also in talks with AEW.

Maglio addressed the Meltzer message board posts on Twitter. He wrote, “Oh this is about me. Never said AEW show would be 1 hour. Said 1 hour makes more sense than 3 when asked if it’d be a 3 hour show. We all assume 2. Dave also apparently made a thing out of me reporting that a source on Turner talks said not doing 52 weeks is a possibility.”

Maglio added on Twitter, “You know who has also said an off-season is a “possibility”? AEW. Many things are possible when a deal is not signed. I’ve also said multiple times an off season would be problematic and my personal opinion is that it’ll be 52 weeks/year. Job is to report what told by sources.”

Furthermore, Voices of Wrestling also shot down the report of the “timebuys” being on the table. You can see their tweets below.

It’s been reported that the idea is for AEW to have both a weekly primetime TV show and to be involved with a streaming package with they broadcast partner they sign with. It was previously speculated that AEW could air programming on TNT’s Bleacher Report Live streaming service. It was also reported that AEW plans on running a two-hour live TV show each week, likely on a weeknight, but not Monday or Friday due to WWE’s RAW and SmackDown. If they go with TNT, the show would not air on Tuesday nights due to TNT’s contract with the NBA. This leaves Wednesday or Thursdays as open nights on TNT. We previously noted that AEW had trademarked the “Tuesday Night Dynamite” name, indicating plans for a Tuesday night show, but Tuesday has reportedly been off the table for a while now. The day of the week could be different if they went with another network. There’s no word yet on when the weekly AEW TV show could premiere, but October has been expected.

You can see the related tweets from Maglio and VOW below: