https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/02/wwe-ufc-...-deal.html

In sports business / media news, WWE is merging with UFC's parent company. They were in talks to sell, rumors of Comcast (NBC Universal), Fox, plus Disney, Netflix, and the Saudi state investment fund.

The deal is an all-stock deal--Endeavor is creating a new company that Endeavor's ownership owns 51% of, the other 49% is being issued to the existing WWE shareholders.

Which tells me there isn't a lot of cash floating around the markets to finance a WWE acquisition by Comcast or Fox or whoever. Endeavor isn't paying Vince a dime (apart from his salary as Executive Chairman for a couple of years), just stock in the new company.

Guess that means we won't ever see Vince or Linda or Shane or Stephanie live on WWE again. :/

All 4 of them with prominent roles in the Attitude Era was the Golden Age.

(04-02-2023 06:11 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Guess that means we won't ever see Vince or Linda or Shane or Stephanie live on WWE again. :/

All 4 of them with prominent roles in the Attitude Era was the Golden Age.

Vince is rumored to be the Executive Chairman of the new thing, so it could happen. And Triple H is still in charge of creative. So I don't think we've seen the last of Vince or Steph on TV. Might be years, but it will happen eventually

(04-02-2023 06:17 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(04-02-2023 06:11 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Guess that means we won't ever see Vince or Linda or Shane or Stephanie live on WWE again. :/

All 4 of them with prominent roles in the Attitude Era was the Golden Age.

Vince is rumored to be the Executive Chairman of the new thing, so it could happen. And Triple H is still in charge of creative. So I don't think we've seen the last of Vince or Steph on TV. Might be years, but it will happen eventually

The more I read on this, you're right. This actually increases the odds of Vince being fully back in charge when considering the alternative was the Saudis.

Reading up on Linda, she hasn't had an on-camera role since the late 2000s. Her career has been all politics since then, although she still owns 1% of the company and attends the HOF/main events. Apparently, Vince and Linda have been married in-name-only since 2015 or so.

This is way back, but I remember Shane urged Vince to buy UFC in the early 2000s when it was struggling, and Vince refused to listen to him. That's pretty ironic now.

A UFC/WWE ownership group makes a ton of sense for many reasons. As a long-time WWE fan myself, I'm glad it wasn't sold exclusively to either NBC/Universal or Fox outright. Part of the strong value it provides is it multi-platform offerings (along with Peacock for library).

The big question is how much, or how little, new ownership will get involved with creative. When that happens **** hits the fan (see Robocop in WCW, the Zombie in WWE-ECW, David Arquette winning the world championship, etc.).