Streaming Wars is a weekly opinion column by IGN’s Streaming Editor, Amelia Emberwing. Check out the last entry: Streaming Dominated Fantastic Fest This Year: Here’s Where You Can Watch at Home . Earlier this week, it was announced that All Elite Wrestling’s programming will begin simulcasting on (HBO) Max as of January 2025.
This marks the latest sporting event to make the move to the streaming space, as each game works to ensure they have the widest audience possible, but it also may mark the end of a whole lot of people no longer bothering to pay for cable. At this point, the only two things that I keep forking over money to the cable company for are football and AEW. Now that AEW is giving a simulcast option, is there really any point in continuing to pay exorbitant cable fees in addition to what I drop on streaming platforms? There are plenty of cord cutting options for football (Fubo or SlingTV, NFL+, etc.
), and even if I wanted to keep my cable package just for sports, I would only need it for half of the year at this point. I suspect I am not the only one of the few remaining cable subscribers below 50 who are in this boat. Wrestling may have a smaller demographic than other major sporting events, but losing both WWE and AEW in 2025 will still be a blow to cable providers’ bottom line.
What’s more important, though, is how this is going to impact viewers. When WWE announced their Netflix partnership earlier in the year, I noted that it was a great deal for W.
