Hard to believe, but it's been five years since WWE last needed to negotiate new TV deals for its three flagship shows. Five years since it was revealed Fox had paid more than $1 billion for the honor of having SmackDown on its network. Now that half-decade period is coming to an end and we know SmackDown will be leaving Fox next year. We also know NXT is moving to The CW. What we still don't know is what will be happening to Raw in 2024.

Leading The Pack

Most fans likely assumed NBCUniversal will re-up its deal for Raw and the red brand's show will remain on the USA Network. However, even though NBC still has a chance of keeping Raw, it doesn't appear to be the leader at present. WrestleWorld reported that Warner Bros. Discovery is currently leading the pack, closely followed by Disney and Amazon, and then NBC is in a distant fourth. Dave Meltzer has picked up that report since, confirming details of the new deal will be announced very soon.

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That Warner Bros. is the most likely to land Raw is notable because that's the same corporation that owns the TV rights to all of AEW's programming. Dynamite, Collision, and Rampage all air live every week on TNT and TBS, both of which are owned by WBD. If Warner Bros. adds Raw to that slate, that'll either mean another night of the week one of those networks airs wrestling live, or it could spell bad news for AEW.

No New Deal Yet For AEW

As of right now, AEW and Warner Bros. are yet to agree to terms on a new TV rights deal. AEW is in the process of signing a new deal, but unlike WWE, the belief is that this would simply be a case of AEW re-committing to WBD. It might not be that simple, though. This is all speculation on my part at this point, but if WBD is dragging its feet when it comes to signing a new deal with AEW, it might well be because it's waiting to see how things pan out with Raw.

WWE is even okay with Raw being moved to a different night of the week. Back to speculating, perhaps WBD likes having pro wrestling on its network, but it has seen the opportunity to replace Dynamite with Raw on Wednesday nights. So much I assumed impossible has already happened in wrestling in 2023, it really wouldn't surprise me to find out another big shock, this one in the form of a major shift brought about by TV rights, is still to come before Christmas.