Media rights money is the only thing that makes any current live and traveling sports/sports entertainment product come anywhere close to being profitable.
I wouldn't even have the numbers for AEW to even begin to confirm or dispute that. Even Brandon Thurston's numbers he gives are estimates.
I'm having difficulty finding data for WWE in 2023 for the full year. Since they joined TKO, most of the earnings articles I can find talk about TKO as a whole and not broken down by UFC vs. WWE.
But for 2022, WWE's net revenue was $1,291.5 billion, of which $1,033.9 billion of that was media. That means media revenue accounted for 80.05% of their net revenue. Live events accounted for $123.1 million (9.53%) and consumer products (which I assume means all merch) $134.5 million (10.41%).
WWE® Reports Record Full Year 2022 Results
corporate.wwe.com
So yeah without media rights money WWE would be bleeding more than someone who slashed open their aorta with a chainsaw
But without media rights money it would be an entirely different operation, so it's kind of a pointless argument to have. It's like saying "Well the Chiefs wouldn't have won the Super Bowl this year without Patrick Mahomes." Well duh no shyt, but they did so what's the fukking point?