During TNT’s entire NBA media rights saga, Charles Barkley slammed WBD execs, announced his retirement, slammed the NBA, and called off retirement – in that order. Contrasting Chuck’s usual outspoken agenda, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson have stayed quiet on the whole situation. They’ve not even commented publicly on his canceling retirement. Not surprisingly, Shaq’s stuck to his usual policy of tuning out the noise by staying out of it. But the TNT’s latest move could be tempting for him.

Apart from the NBA, TNT Sports also lost its negotiating window with AEW. But this one’s got a positive plot twist. TNT announced a new show, TNT Overdrive, featuring AEW’s top wrestling talent. The new show is already set to premiere on Saturday at 10 p.m. after AEW Collision.

You know who will love it? Wrestling maniac with multiple AEW cameos, Shaquille O’Neal. While Turner and AEW remained cousins under the Warner Bros umbrella, Shaq could do stuff like popping up on Dynamite and feuding with Cody Rhodes. He still harbors bitter feelings about leaving in an ambulance and wants a second chance in AEW to salvage his pride. AEW President, Tony Khan, is also very keen on having Shaq back. Now they have a chance of making it happen.

TNT Overdrive is expected to bring AEW stars into a dramatic production with car chases and extreme activities. Your typical adrenaline junkie entertainment. It stars Will Ospreay, Willow Nightengale, and Billy Gunn. The show is also seemingly a sign that TNT and AEW will continue their partnership.

It signals TNT Sports’ big shift to a wider sports catalog after losing the NBA rights. Just before Barkley called off retirement, Turner hinted at major rebranding with him at the helm. There’s speculation that Inside the NBA will be reformatted into a general sports show including the OGs. That brings Shaq and Chuck to keep up their usual banter, but also over the college football playoffs or college basketball. And when they really want to duke it out, they could head over to Overdrive instead of calling Vince McMahon to set up the Slap Bet. But first, we need to know what Shaq is thinking.

Shaquille O’Neal is quiet on his plans

Apart from Chuck, the Inside Guys stopped at assuring fans that things would work out. Although Kenny said they were blindsided by Chuck’s retirement, they haven’t really commented on the rapidly changing situation. Barkley also rebelled against the PR team’s gag orders, candidly dished about his contract, said he’d not go anywhere without his TNT crew and theorized out loud that Ernie Johnson could retire.

Meanwhile, O’Neal commented on the situation for the first time after the NBA picked Amazon on The Big Podcast. But he vaguely said he doesn’t know what’s going to happen.

According to industry experts, TNT would have to negotiate with O’Neal the way they did with Barkley. There is room for Shaq to stay. But now that WBD took a massive $9.1 billion hit, the contract negotiations would be dicey.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting pilot episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with NCAA Star Asia Avinger.