TNT Executive who supported and greenlit AEW released; possible serious consequences for the wrestling promotion
Kevin Reilly and Bob Greenblatt have now been released from their position on WarnerMedia Inc. While, for wrestling fans, this news may not seem huge at first, when put into context, this could be extremely bad news for AEW. Casey Bloys will be the person in charge of looking after TNT, with the other networks.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has noted that Kevin Reilly was the person who greenlit AEW and is the reason why AEW is there with TNT in the first place. The TNT deal is what has helped AEW to achieve the success and the reach that they currently have and has helped to make them appear as a legitimate company and player in the market.
AEW-supporting TNT Executive released from the company
There has been a huge shakeup of executives at WarnerMedia, with both Bob Greenblatt and Kevin Reilly leaving the company. Alongside them, according to the Variety report, Keith Cocozza, the Executive Vice President of corporate marketing and communications is also stepping down. Instead, Ann Sarnoff will be overseeing the new content group, and Casey Bloys will be reporting to Sarnoff.
It should be noted that without Kevin Reilly in his position, AEW's TV deal is certainly at risk.
Casey Bloys' appointment is also crucial to AEW. Bloys was previously the president of HBO Programming. In her new role, she will be overseeing the original content for HBO Max, along with TNT, TBS, and truTV.
Currently, AEW is doing well in key demographics and its ratings have been strong during the pandemic. While it would seem that TNT would ant to keep the program that is doing the best other than NBA basketball, there is something that AEW fans have to worry about — the history of Casey Bloys.
Casey Bloys was the person who got HBO out of providing boxing content and is not known to be a fan of combat sports.
If AEW did get kicked off TNT for some weird reason, there would be quite a few networks looking to pick the show up. However, for now, that seems unlikely.