This weekend is the biggest of the year for both the WWE and its fandom, as WrestleMania 39 has taken over Hollywood with John Cena's return to squared-circle combat, Snoop Dogg's hosting skillz, and lots of love for the Usos. But if a new report is to be believed, this may be the final Mania pay-per-view with the WWE as a McMahon family-run company, as the organization is allegedly in the process of being sold to the UFC's parent company Endeavor Group, after months of Vince McMahon's attempts to attract buyers.
Talks are reportedly in the advanced stages for Ari Emanuel and his Endeavor Group to buy up the WWE, according to CNBC, and it sounds like the news could be made official the day after WrestleMania 39. Such an announcement would defintely make for an even more interesting Raw broadcast, to say the least. That suggestion should be taken with as much of a grain of salt as everything else.
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According to the new report's sources, the UFC and the WWE could come together in a sense to form a new company for public trading, though the respective brands would allegedly continue to operate largely as they are currently. More specifically, it's noted that Endeavor would own 51% of the combined company, with the other 49% being split among WWE shareholders.
As far as what this new deal would mean for both organizations' executive structuring, that would also seemingly stay relatively close to where things are at now. Ari Emanuel would reportedly serve as CEO for both his current company and the newly founded brand, with executive chairman roles going to Vince McMahon and Endeavor's current president Mark Shapiro.
WWE's Nick Khan assumed full CEO duties after Stephanie McMahon stepped down from her co-chief status, having previously made a quick return to the company amid her father's "retirement" coinciding with investigations into financial payoffs. It's expected that Khan would retain his full CEO role within the new company. Similarly, UFC's current president Dana White would reportedly keep his role as president of the MMA org.
The WWE currently has a market value somewhere above $6.79 billion, and the new deal would reportedly boost that overall value to somewhere around $9.3 billion. The UFC, meanwhile, is predicted to be valued at more than $12 billion if the deal would go through. The MMA company was a huge money-maker for Endeavor in 2022, and that trend doesn't appear to be changing as this year goes on.
Obviously there's a chance this purported deal could fall apart before ever going public, and that's even assuming all of the information from the outlet's sources is 100% legit. But this isn't the first time a UFC/WWE buyout has been rumored, and the deal does make a certain amount of sense from a business perspective. A few athletes, with Brock Lesnar being the most noteworthy, have competed and held contracts both companies. (To say nothing of Ken Shamrock, Tank Abbott and the UFC's founding generation.) Former UFC double-champ and pay-per-view commentator Daniel Cormier was said to be attending WrestleMania this weekend, too. Even if it doesn't mean anything, it's circumstantial evidence of crossover appeal.
One thing that fans could likely expect out of such a deal would be changes to WWE's pay-per-views, which are currently available to stream for those with Peacock subscriptions at no extra cost. Reversing that plan, either partially or in full, seems like an obvious way to draw in more money, despite the NBCUniversal deal being such a big draw for Peacock users. Even though UFC Fight Nights are technically free for fans with cable/satellite/streaming TV plans, those events are not on the same level of importance as the more expensive monthly brawls. A similar approach could happen with future WWE events if the deal goes through, but we should probably get all the way through WrestleMania 39 before heading down those speculation-heavy avenues.
