Amidst its biggest annual show, WrestleMania, WWE may have completed its search for a new owner as Vince McMahon’s company is close to a deal to be sold to Endeavor for $9.3 billion, under which it would be moved into a new publicly traded company with Ultimate Fighting Championship, according to news reports.
CNBC was first to report that the top pro wrestling and mixed martial arts promotions in the world would both be operated under a new joint company led by Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel. McMahon, who briefly stepped down from WWE this past July after the Wall Street Journal exposed years worth of hush money payments he made to several women to keep quiet about affairs and sexual misconduct, would serve as executive chairman of the new company. Endeavor will get 51% of the new company while WWE shareholders would split the remaining 49%.
UFC President Dana White would maintain his position in the new company while current WWE CEO Nick Khan would serve as WWE president. Khan took over as co-CEO alongside McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie, but became the sole CEO after she departed the company upon her father’s return this past January. Stephanie McMahon’s husband, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, has taken over as the creative head of WWE programming, though McMahon has been reported by Wrestling Observer to have remained involved with the development of this year’s WrestleMania since returning.
While the reported structure would keep McMahon involved in the day-to-day running of the company he turned into a global empire, it would end WWE’s status as a family-operated business dating back to its founding as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation by McMahon’s father, Vincent J. McMahon, in 1953.
McMahon bought the company from his father in 1982 and transformed pro wrestling’s territorial system into a made-for-television nationwide phenomenon driven by WrestleMania and larger-than-life stars like Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage. In the years that followed, champions like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Dave Bautista and John Cena would turn their stardom in WWE into crossover success as movie stars.
Since news of McMahon’s interest in selling WWE became public in January, the company’s stock has surged 33% since the start of the year and ended this past week at $91.26/share. WWE has a reported market value of $6.8 billion, with this year’s WrestleMania in Los Angeles likely to pass the event’s all-time revenue record set last year at $206.5 million.
If the deal is completed, one of the first orders of business for WWE under Emanuel’s leadership would be to negotiate new media rights deals, as the current ones with NBCUniversal and Fox are up in 2024. NBCUniversal airs the company’s flagship show “Monday Night Raw” and its developmental series “NXT” on USA and hosts the WWE Network with archival content and live premium events like WrestleMania on Peacock, while Fox broadcasts “Friday Night Smackdown” at a rate of $205 million per year.
In an interview with The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast, Nick Khan said that WWE is open to returning to a pay-per-view format for its premium events after ending it in 2014 with the launch of WWE Network, though he said that it would be at a lower price than the company sold the events at before launching the streaming service.
Endeavor did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
