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All Elite Wrestling (AEW) started a special double episode of “Dynamite” and “Collision” on Wednesday with a 10-bell salute to Ted Turner.
Turner, who helped launch TNT and TBS and purchased World Championship Wrestling (WCW) to help change the pro wrestling world, died on 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, in 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 livestream 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 the field of 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 that pro wrestling belonged on national television. And because of his passion, because of his vision, it found a home on TBS and then later in the 90s, on TNT. And therefore, generations of fans around the world, knew that we were destination viewing.
“And I knew that firsthand. 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.”
Founder of CNN 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 that one man became the face of “what wrestling means to TBS.” He revealed that man to be pro wrestling icon, Sting.
A silver-haired Sting made his way down the entrance ramp to “holy s—” chants. Sting, who became a legend in WCW before later signing with AEW for the last run of his career, remembered Turner as well.
“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 completely committed to us, devoted to us in every conceivable way. So much so that when some of the top brass up there in 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 time to cut ‘em off because we’re always in the red.’ Ted would tell us that story and say I’d look at all of them and say, ‘You wrestlers just keep on doing what you’re doing because I 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 once the company started in 2019.
Sting was in the midst of the “Monday Night Wars” as well, battling the New World Order faction and helping put WCW above WWE for 83 straight weeks in the 1990s.
Wrestler Sting appears at the Cow Palace for World Championship Wrestling, a major wrestling organization competing 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.”