AEW Pays Emotional Tribute to Ted Turner With 10 Bell Salute

Ted Turner tribute on AEW - Ben Rose/Getty Images for UNICEF; AEW YouTube

All Elite Wrestling (AEW) opened its Wednesday (May 6) broadcast with a special tribute to Ted Turner, the media mogul who revolutionized cable television, who died on Wednesday at 87.

“Ted Turner believed in pro wrestling,” AEW commentator Tony Schiavone said at the top of the double Dynamite and Collision episode. “He believed in you, the fans, and he believed that pro wrestling belonged on national television.”

Turner, who helped launch TNT and TBS, purchased World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the late 1980s and gave it a primetime slot on his cable networks. This move changed pro-wrestling forever, leading to the competitive “Monday Night Wars” between the WWE (then WWF) and WCW.

“Because of his passion, because of his vision, it found a home on TBS and then later in the ’90s, on TNT,” added Schiavone, who worked as a commentator for WCW. “And, therefore, generations of fans around the world knew that we were destination viewing.”

“I knew that firsthand,” he continued. “I began in the studio in TBS in 1985. Decades later, because of the foundation that was laid by Ted Turner, we still survive today through the leadership of Tony Khan in AEW, through the leadership of Warner Discovery, wrestling still survives.”

AEW president Tony Khan shared his own tribute ahead of Wednesday’s show. “It’s a very sad day in the world of television and certainly in the world of professional wrestling,” . “The man who gave us this platform, the man who created TBS and TNT and so many great television channels and so many great concepts in the field of television, the late great Mr. Ted Turner has passed.”