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All Elite Wrestling (AEW) kicked off a special double episode of “Dynamite” and “Collision” on Wednesday with a 10 o’clock salute to Ted Turner.
Turner, who helped launch TNT and TBS and bought World Championship Wrestling (WCW) to help change the professional wrestling world, died Tuesday. He was 87.
AEW co-founder Tony Khan announced the tribute to Turner before the show.
CNN FOUNDER AND CABLE NEWS PIONEER TED TURNER DEAD AT 87
Sting and Ted Turner shake hands in Atlanta, Georgia, December 1993. (WWE/WWE/Getty Images)
“It’s a very sad day in the world of television, and certainly in the world of professional wrestling,” Khan said in a live stream posted to his X account. “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 television, the late great Mr. Ted Turner has passed.”
AEW commentator Tony Schiavone had some heartfelt words to say about Turner at the start of the show.
“Ted Turner believed in pro wrestling,” Schiavone said. “He believed in you, the fans, and he believed pro wrestling belonged on national television. And because of his passion, because of his vision, it found a home on TBS and later in the ’90s on TNT. And so generations of fans around the world knew we were destination shows.
“And I knew that myself. I started in the studio at 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.”
CNN founder Ted Turner attends the “Cold War: The Complete Series” screening at the Paley Center for Media in New York City on April 29, 2012. (Matthew Eisman/WireImage)
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Schiavone said one man became the face of “what wrestling means to TBS.” He revealed that the man was a pro wrestling icon, Sting.
A silver-haired Sting walked down the entrance ramp to “holy s—” chants. Sting, who became a legend in WCW before later signing with AEW for the final run of his career, also remembered Turner.
“Can you imagine having an all-in billionaire who absolutely loved pro wrestling?” Sting asked the crowd. “I can’t believe what he (Turner) did for us. He was totally committed to us, devoted to us in every way imaginable. So much so that when some of the top brass up there in the CNN Towers would have their meetings with Ted, they’d say, ‘Ted, we don’t know about this whole pro wrestling thing. I think it’s always time to cut off the red. Ted would tell us that story and say I’d look at all of them and say, ‘I wrestlers just keep doing what you’re doing because I’ve got some deep pockets.’
“There wouldn’t be a TNT title, there wouldn’t be a Sting. There wouldn’t be a Darby Allin, there wouldn’t be a Tony Schiavone here tonight. You wouldn’t be here tonight. So thank you, once again, Ted.”
Schiavone worked for WCW until the end. He had a front row seat to the “Monday Night Wars” between WCW and WWE. He returned to the airwaves for AEW when the company started in 2019.
Sting was also in the middle of the “Monday Night Wars” battling the New World Order faction and helping put WCW over WWE for 83 consecutive weeks in the 1990s.
Wrestler Sting appears at the Cow Palace for World Championship Wrestling, a major wrestling organization that competes with the WWF. (Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle)
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AEW was the first pro wrestling program to return to TNT and TBS after WCW was purchased by WWE. AEW holds two shows a week on the station – “Dynamite” and “Collision.”
