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All Elite Wrestling (AEW) kicked off 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 bought World Championship Wrestling (WCW) to help change the world of professional wrestling, died Tuesday. He was 87 years old.
AEW co-founder Tony Khan announced the tribute to Turner before the show.
TED TURNER, CNN FOUNDER AND CABLE NEWS PIONEER, DEATH AT 87
Sting and Ted Turner hold 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
AEW commentator Tony Schiavone had some heartfelt words to say about Turner at the beginning of the show.
“Ted Turner believed in professional wrestling,” Schiavone said. “He believed in you, the fans, and he believed that professional wrestling belonged on national television. And because of his passion, because of his vision, it found a home on TBS and then, in the ’90s, on TNT. And therefore, generations of fans around the world knew that we were destination viewing.
“And I knew it firsthand. I started in the TBS studio in 1985. Decades later, thanks to the foundation that Ted Turner laid, we still survive today through Tony Khan’s leadership at AEW, through the leadership of Warner Discovery, wrestling still survives.”
CNN founder Ted Turner attends a screening of “Cold War: The Complete Series” 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 that man is professional wrestling icon, Sting.
A silver-haired Sting came down the entrance ramp while singing “holy s–.” Sting, who became a legend in WCW before signing with AEW for the final leg of his career, also remembered Turner.
“Can you imagine having a billionaire who loved professional 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 way imaginable. So much so that when some of the higher-ups there at CNN Towers would meet with Ted, they would say, ‘Ted, we don’t know anything about this whole professional wrestling thing. I think it’s time to cut them off because we’re always in the red.’ Ted would tell us that story and say he would look at all of them and say, ‘You wrestlers, keep doing what you do.’ They’re doing it because I have a lot of money.’
“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 watch the “Monday Night Wars” between WCW and WWE. He returned to the airwaves for AEW once the company started in 2019.
Sting was also in the middle of the “Monday Night Wars,” fighting the New World Order faction and helping put WCW ahead of 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 professional wrestling show to return to TNT and TBS after WWE purchased WCW. AEW runs two shows a week on the station: “Dynamite” and “Collision.”
