AEW Surpasses WCW as Longest-Running Wrestling Program on TBS & TNT

AEW is making history as the first wrestling promotion to dethrone WCW as the longest-running primetime wrestling show on TBS and TNT. Tonight’s episode of AEW Dynamite, titled Spring BreakThru, marks the 289th of the flagship show. The episode is headlined by TBS Champion Mercedes Mone vs. ROH Women’s World Champion Athena in the women’s Owen Hart Tournament semifinal and Will Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita in the men’s semifinal round.

AEW Defeats WCW

Eric Bischoff, the original booker of WCW who has a complicated relationship with AEW’s Tony Khan, congratulated the company on the major accomplishment. “I want to congratulate Tony Khan and his entire staff. This obviously means a lot to them and congratulations,” he said on his 83 Weeks podcast. “It does say a lot about Tony’s commitment. Tony put his own money into this.”

WCW Nitro ran on Turner Networks’ TNT channel from 1995 until its cancellation in 2001. Garnering 288 episodes, WCW was WWE’s largest rival until Vince McMahon acquired it.

“You can judge the product, I can judge the product, I often have; I just don’t watch it anymore. But [the] truth is [it’s] his vision, his dream, his money, his commitment,” Bischoff added. “So congratulations because what he did isn’t easy, no matter how anybody feels about the product, it wasn’t easy and it still isn’t. It doesn’t bother me a bit, it just doesn’t mean anything to me while it does to Tony and company.”

Founded in 2019 by Khan with the help of names like the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, “Hangman” Adam Page, and Chris Jericho, AEW’s popularity has skyrocketed over the last six years. While AEW Rampage is no longer, AEW Collision on TNT remains essential weekend wrestling programming. The company’s biggest live event gate in history came at AEW All In 2023 in London, England with over 80,000 in attendance. They’re on the rise again, taking the company global to countries like Scotland and Mexico for the first time.