AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
On last Wednesday's Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer
reported that Warner Brothers Discovery apparently blocked
Brody King from appearing on last week’s AEW Dynamite due to
the "Fuck ICE" crowd chants. “The deal is that they
didn’t want the fans in the arena to be chanting that. If
Brody came out, there was that risk…when he comes back it
will happen again. I don’t know how they’re going to handle
it. This is again not a Tony call. This is from above. You
know what it is, nobody wants to get on Trump’s bad side. If
it wasn’t for that nobody would care, it’s just a chant, but
unfortunately, they’ve got a company they’re trying to sell
and get regulatory approval from a guy who is gonna take
that stuff personal. That’s just how it is. No Brody King on
the show when he and MJF absolutely should have had a
segment on the show.”
Sean Ross Sapp posted on BlueSky the next day"The rumors
that Brody King was kept off AEW Dynamite by WBD were
vehemently denied to me.. Subsequently, WBD actually
sent a statement to Sapp and other wrestling media:
"Warner Bros. Discovery did not have any involvement in
Brody King’s upcoming AEW schedule. Any speculation to the
contrary is categorically false. Brody is scheduled to
appear during the next AEW event, which will air this
Saturday on TNT and HBO Max".
But it gets even better: PWinsider tried to report that King
had already left for Australia. In fact, BJ Bethel tweeted
Thursday afternoon "Brody King was at AEW Dynamite on
Wednesday in Ontario, Ca., contrary to reports he wasn't at
the show. He and other wrestlers left after Dynamite was off
the air.
Here's a likely reality: Warner Brothers Discovery asked
King to be held off the show, hoping it would quiet down any
chants. They didn't expect what Meltzer reported on to get
out and essentially kicked in The Streisand Effect. This is
a phrase used to describe a phenomenon where attempts to
suppress, censor, or hide information backfire, resulting in
greater public awareness and viral spread of that
information.
They should have remembered that when WBD ran ICE
recruitment ads on AEW programming; large numbers of fans
flooded customer comment sites of TBS, TNT and (HBO)MAX;
fans cancelled (HBO) MAX subscriptions in large numbers to
the point that WBD dropped the ICE ads. WBD needed to
understand that fans would do this again if proven to be
true, and if King were cooled off on TV. What has been
happening on the streets of Minneapolis and Los Angeles and
the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti has people not
ready to accept any behavior that shows favor to ICE or the
large number of corporations bending their knee to the
regime in Washington.
But then in yet ANOTHER twist, CNN.com reported this past
Saturday on the "Fuck ICE" chants in an article titled "The
shocking, rule-breaking new move in pro wrestling: getting
specific about politics" that discussed the ICE chants, as
well as Becky Lynch satirizing Donald Trump in her promos
and tweets. Grand Slam Australia then aired Saturday with
the chants left in, despite the show airing on 16-hour delay
from Sydney.
Speaking of Brody King and ICE, he's doing a FOURTH run of
his Abolish ICE t-shirt, whose proceeds are going to help
those affected by ICE through the Minnesota Immigrant Rights
Action Committee Education Fund. As of the third run, the
sales of Brody King Abolish ICE t-shirt and an associated
comic has already raised nearly $58,904.09. In July 2025,
King raised $27,758 for the Local Hearts Foundation to
assist with essentials like rent and food for impacted
families in Southern California.
Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Podcast announced last weekend
that All Elite Wrestling will be holding AEW Double or
Nothing to Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, NY this
Spring. Last year's Double or Nothing was held at the Desert
Diamond Arena in Glendale, AZ.
While the date of the event has not been officially
announced as of yet, every Double or Nothing event since
2019 has taken place on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend,
which in 2026 would be May 24.
AEW ran Arthur Ashe Stadium for the original AEW Grand Slam
from 2021-2024; but this would be the first event at Louis
Armstrong Stadium, the 14,000-seat stadium adjacent to
Arthur Ashe Stadium, both located at the USTA Billie Jean
King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows. Louis
Armstrong Stadium opened at the King National Tennis
Center in 2018.
AEW ALL IN: London 2026 takes place at Wembley Stadium on
Sunday, August 30 (during the United Kingdom's August Bank
Holiday weekend). General on-sale for tickets begins Friday,
March 20th, at 10:00 am GMT/3:00 pm EDT. Fans can register
for early access to the presale, which runs from
Monday, March 16, at 10:00 am GMT/3:00 pm EDT through
Thursday, 19th March, at 11:59 pm GMT/5:00 am EDT Friday
March 20.
It is STRONGLY recommended to sign up for the AEW Insider
registration to secure early access to tickets at
https://www.allelitewrestling.com/aew-insider
United States YouTube TV subscribers who are WWE fans will
need to wait even LONGER before they can get ESPN Unlimited
for free as part of their subscription. When WWE PLEs
switched from Peacock to ESPN Unlimited in the United States
in September, it was only available free to a couple of
cable and streaming providers. Most cable and streaming
partners have added the service as part of subscriptions,
but two of the popular streaming services are still without
it. Xfinity has indicated they will be ready in a few weeks
(which sounds like before Wrestlemania).
But in a blog last week, YouTube posted announcing new
streaming plans, and said that ESPN Unlimited will be coming
in Fall 2026, meaning that fans who subscribe and want to
watch WWE PLEs, including Wrestlemania and Summerslam still
have to shell out an additional $29.99 for the next several
months to get ESPN Unlimited. YouTube is launching a
dedicated Sports Plan, among others, for $64.99 a month
which will include FS1, NBC Sports Network, all of the ESPN
networks, and eventually, ESPN Unlimited.
