Why Vince Russo Insists That Tony Khan Is Paying For TV Time For AEW

Former WWE head writer Vince Russo had earlier floated the conspiracy theory that Tony Khan was independently financing "AEW Collision" after convincing WBD to grant the promotion another two hours of programming. Now, after observing the declining viewership numbers of AEW's new show, Russo is even more convinced that Khan is shelling out money from his own pocket to keep "Collision" on the air.

During his appearance on "Busted Open," Russo argued that AEW had plateaued as a company, citing the fact that it had not grown its viewership base since launching "AEW Dynamite" in October 2019.    

"Any other show in television that did not increase their ratings over four years would be gone," Russo said. "They would be gone. I'm gonna go back to my original theory — 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, he's going to the network and saying, 'What do you guys think you can make through advertising, etc.? Ok, no problem, I'll double it.'"

Russo added that no TV station would retain two shows that average less than 500,000 viewers a week — "AEW Collision" and "AEW Rampage" — if not for an underhanded deal. Ross believes FOX and WWE parting ways on a "WWE SmackDown" extension is proof of his theory, seeing as FOX reportedly expected WWE to average over 3.5 million viewers a week, a number that the show rarely ever hit.

"There's no way they [WBD] are happy with the numbers AEW gets," Russo concluded. In fairness to AEW, last week's episode of "Collision" hit a two-month high in the ratings and was watched by an average of 562,000 viewers. Yet, the viewership has surpassed the 500,000 mark on only two occasions since July 29 — a trend that Russo believes does not bode well for the company.