Speculation Grows That WBD Could Own as Much as 25% of AEW

Eric Bischoff isn’t buying the idea that Warner Bros. Discovery only owns a tiny slice of All Elite Wrestling.

While speaking on his 83 Weeks podcast on February 21, 2026, Bischoff addressed the ongoing conversation about WBD’s minority stake in AEW — and made it clear he believes there’s more to the story than what’s been publicly reported. Bischoff started by suggesting that misinformation and selective disclosure are simply part of doing business in wrestling and media.

“I mean, the spin, the distortion, the lies by omission — with regard to probably every wrestling organization at some point, and probably every business at some point — that’s just the normal course of business. I’m not surprised.”

He then talked about the widely discussed $185 million-per-year AEW media deal and the reports that WBD’s ownership stake is under 5 percent, questioning whether that number reflects the full picture. He suspects that the equity is somewhere between 20 and 25 percent.

“It’s like the nonsense with AEW and the 5 million a year contract. Then you hear about whether Time Warner owned a percentage of AEW. Now it’s out that it’s under 5%. Here’s my other prediction: when it’s all said and done — and we may never know unless there’s a merger or acquisition that forces the issue — I suspect the equity is somewhere between 20 and 25%, not the 2% or 3% or whatever number has been released online for the internet wrestling community to run with.”

Bischoff pointed to what he sees as patterns in corporate behavior, implying that recent mentions of WBD’s involvement weren’t random.

“You look at the dots. You look at little pieces of information. You look at patterns over time. There was a reason why CNN and Warner released information about Warner’s position in AEW last week. It wasn’t necessarily bad. It didn’t smell good. It didn’t smell bad. It just smelled different.”

Drawing from his own experience during the Turner era of WCW, Bischoff said he’s skeptical that the public has the full financial picture.

“I think there’s more to that than meets the eye. I suspect there’s more involvement from Time Warner in AEW than we’ve been led to believe or what’s readily available to the public.”

He stopped short of claiming direct knowledge, but made it clear that equity can be structured in different ways. Bischoff ended by acknowledging he could be wrong — but he’s confident in his instincts.

“I think they own more than we’ve been told. Maybe it’s 5%, but we all know there are ways to structure things. There are generally accepted accounting principles — there are ways to account for equity in different forms. I don’t know anything for certain. But I know what I went through at Turner. I saw how things worked. We’ll see what happens. I’ve been about 98% correct so far. Maybe this is the one that takes me down. Who knows? We’ll find out eventually. Hopefully, we’ll find out.”

For now, there’s still no official confirmation of the exact percentage WBD owns in AEW — but Bischoff clearly believes the real number could be much higher than what’s been reported.

Do you think Eric Bischoff is onto something about WBD’s stake in AEW, or is this just speculation? Drop your thoughts below and let us know.

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