Brian Damage
This Week in Wrestling: Week 18 of 2026
Two pretty big stories out of wrestling the past couple of weeks and they seem (At least on the surface) to be somewhat intertwined. One story is getting a lot of play, while the other appears to be put on the backburner. The first story involves WWE offering pay cuts to several talents. This on the heels of several releases after Wrestlemania.
Now while it sucks to see so many wrestlers get cut, it does offer opportunity for new talent coming in whether to NXT or the main roster. The part that is a bit alarming is TKO demanding that some of the current roster take pay decreases. From what I can tell, TKO has been making money hand over fist and to see guys like the New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) leave because they didn’t receive what they perceived as a fair deal is somewhat of a bad look for WWE.
Granted, New Day hasn’t been used prominently in a while and maybe that justified offering them less money. The thing is, WWE spends so much on celebrities like Jelly Roll and iSpeed and the lot. Why not invest on actual wrestlers that fans want to see? Now this story has been covered a lot the past week or so and it MAY be connected to another story that has been making the rounds, but not as widely as the pay cut story. It doesn’t have to do with WWE, but AEW.
The word going around is that Paramount who just purchased Warner Bros has notified Tony Khan that he has 12 to 16 months to either negotiate a new TV deal with Paramount or shop Dynamite and Collision to another network or platform. There is a belief that Paramount doesn’t want AEW to continue on their programming in part due to their strong relationship with TKO. UFC programming is on Paramount and of course WWE is a part of TKO as well.
That doesn’t leave AEW and Tony Khan very many alternate options. There is talk that AEW may move to YouTube, at least temporarily while they search for a new TV partner. That could very be a death knell for AEW. Reportedly, this was told to Tony Khan and that is why he began his own streaming service called My AEW. All of this, to me connects with WWE’s recent pay cuts and releases, because they don’t have to get into any crazy bidding wars with AEW at the moment. Does TKO and WWE see the writing on the wall with AEW? Perhaps and that is why they are trimming the fat with their own company.
It is a good reminder why AEW is so important to wrestling’s current landscape. They might not be on WWE’s level as far as competition, but they are a viable alternative that allows wrestlers to make a decent living for themselves without having to scratch and claw their way throughout the independents. A WWE monopoly isn’t good for anyone in the pro wrestling business and the pay cuts and releases are a somber reminder of that fact.
Remembering Ted Turner
Whether you were a die hard WCW or WWF fan, there is no question the 90’s was a great time to be a wrestling fan with the Monday Night Wars. Eric Bischoff gets a lot of the credit for WCW defeating the WWF for 83 weeks and all that, but Bischoff would never had that opportunity if not for media mogul Ted Turner. It was Turner who purchased a dying Jim Crockett Promotions and saved it from ruin. It was he who greenlit Bischoff’s vision to go head to head with the WWF on Mondays and backed it with his own money. Ted Turner was just as an important figure behind the scenes as anybody in the Monday Night Wars.
While there was a true rivalry between Turner and Vince McMahon that stemmed from the infamous Black Saturday fiasco, truth was Turner was always a big pro wrasslin’ fan. He once said the secret to the success of his Superstation WTBS based in Atlanta, Georgia were three things…Atlanta Braves baseball, Andy Griffith and Professional Wrasslin’. It was those three things that helped WTBS become the super station it became. Turner never forgot that.
He worked with Georgia Championship Wrestling and was heavily rumored to be involved in an affair with GCW’s main competitor in promoter Ann Gunkel. Granted, Turner made a few mistakes running WCW like appointing people who had no knowledge or passion for the business like Jack Petrik and Jim Herd. Decisions like those hurt WCW in the long run. Despite that, Turner was good for the wrestling business for years and years. May he rest in peace.
Photo Gallery
Cool drawing of Demolition as the Flintstones
Brooke Adams
Jenni Neidhart
Karissa Rivera
Mina Shirakawa
Blake Monroe
Kayla Braxton
Salina De La Renta
Ash By Elegance
Priscilla Kelly
Deonna Purrazzo
Tessa Blanchard
Video Gallery
Here is the late Ted Turner talking about World Championship Wrestling
CHICC
That’s an unfortunate timing of a light’s reflection in the water for Mariah May!!
David Fullam
Ironic that another corporate deal may kill wrestling on TNT a second time. Rest in Peace Ted Turner. I got irritated that the mainstream media only talked about CNN. I figured they would not talk about his wrestling history, but they glossed over his philanthropy, environmentalism, the businesses he created (except CNN), the film preservation, the America’s Cup, et al. The War for Georgia played out on his TV and changed wrestling forever.