Former WWE head writer Vince Russo has doubled down on his previous theory that Tony Khan is personally funding the program. Russo initially voiced this speculation after AEW secured an additional two-hour slot for Collision from WBD.

During an interview on Busted Open Radio, Russo argued that AEW has reached a growth ceiling, highlighting that its audience size has remained stagnant since the launch of AEW Dynamite in October 2019.

"Any other show in television that did not increase their ratings over four years would be gone," Russo commented. "I'm going back to my original theory , there's no question in my mind that Tony Khan is paying for TV time. The dude's a billionaire; he wants these shows on the network, he's going to the network and saying, 'What do you guys think you can make through advertising, etc.? Ok, no problem, I'll double it.'"

Russo further explained that no broadcasting channel would keep two shows with an average viewership below 500,000 , "AEW Collision" and "AEW Rampage" , without some form of clandestine agreement. He cited the terminated extension between FOX and WWE for "WWE SmackDown" as corroborating evidence, given that FOX had expected the show to draw in more than 3.5 million viewers weekly, a benchmark it seldom met.

Russo concluded, "There's no way they [WBD] are happy with the numbers AEW gets." Although, it's worth mentioning that the last episode of "Collision" recorded a two-month high in ratings, drawing an average of 562,000 viewers. Despite this, Russo maintains that the show crossing the 500,000 viewer mark only twice since July 29 spells trouble for AEW.

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