A filing in the ongoing lawsuit involving Kevin Kelly and the Tate Twins disclosed on Tuesday a noteworthy detail of AEW’s corporate structure.
A corporate disclosure statement filed by AEW confirms that the parent company of All Elite Wrestling LLC is Beatnik Investments LLC, and no publicly held corporation owns ten percent or more of its stock. The disclosure is a requirement under the rules of federal court, where AEW is trying to get the defamation and misclassification lawsuit moved.
This suggests that if Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), a publicly traded company, holds any stake in AEW at all, WBD would have to own less than ten percent.
The detail is notable in light of a recent report by Sports Business Journal following news of AEW’s media deal renewal, which implied that WBD has a stake in AEW, a notion Wrestlenomics has also frequently raised as a possibility.
This isn’t the first time AEW revealed Beatnik is its parent entity. A similar filing about Beatnik was submitted just over a year ago during the Luchasaurus mask copyright lawsuit, initially stating that All Elite Wrestling LLC had no parent company. That filing was later corrected to identify Beatnik Investments LLC as AEW’s parent company. The August 2023 filing reiterated that, at that time as well, no public company owned ten percent or more of either Beatnik or AEW.
This naturally doesn’t rule out that WBD owns less than ten percent of AEW’s stock.
In September 2023, Tony Khan was asked if its major TV partner WBD owned a part of AEW. Khan didn’t provide a direct answer. He indicated that he would be open to WBD “having a piece or a bigger piece potentially” in a new deal.
Florida public records confirm that Beatnik Investments is an active limited liability company in Florida, established in 2017. The authorized members are Tony Khan and his sister, Shanna Khan, while Thomas Clarkson is listed as an authorized representative, though his exact role remains unclear—he may be a financial manager.
All Elite Wrestling LLC is also incorporated in Delaware and recognizes Beatnik Investments LLC as its parent company. According to Florida records, AEW’s authorized representative is Chris Peck, the company’s General Counsel.
A Jacksonville local media report from 2022 indicated that Beatnik Investments was used by Shad Khan, the billionaire owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and father of Tony and Shanna, to invest over $76 million in the Black News Channel. Beatnik owned a majority of the channel until it was sold to media businessman Byron Allen following Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Brandon Thurston has written about wrestling business since 2015. He operates and owns Wrestlenomics.