Last fall WWE officially merged with the UFC to create the biggest sports-entertainment powerhouse in the world — TKO. Though the two companies continue to operate as their own separate entities and UFC President Dana White has made it clear in the past that there wouldn’t be any crossover between the two brands, that appears to be shifting.
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Following UFC Fight Night on May 11, White participated in a press conference where he explained that going forward fans will see the two entities teaming up for a weekend of events. While Power Slap would take place on Friday alongside SmackDown, UFC would host an event and then WWE would close out the festivities on Sunday. “We already have those dates set up right now where Power Slap goes Friday and UFC goes Saturday,” White said. “You’re going to see Friday, Power Slap, Saturday, UFC, and Sunday, WWE. You’ll start seeing that stuff too.” (h/t: Fightful)
Will WWE’s Saturday PLE Schedule Soon Be Obsolete?
Prior to 2022, most of WWE’s events were held on a Sunday. This obviously isn’t as convenient for fans looking to attend the shows as most people have the full work week ahead. Not only that, fans oversees would likely be watching the shows into the early hours of Monday morning. WWE took notice of this and made the change that put them head to head with the UFC. Now that the two are under the Endeavor umbrella, it makes the most sense business wise to expand a whole weekend of events and make some sort of crossover between audiences. In 2022 Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter noted that the decision to move to Saturdays was oneย made by WWE President Nick Khan as he felt big sporting events are better held on Saturday.
It’s worth noting that as of now, WWE’s current slate of major events announced through the summer — King and Queen of the Ring in Saudi Arabia, Clash at the Castle in Scotland, Money in the Bank in Toronto, SummerSlam in Cleveland and Bash in Berlin — are all scheduled to take place on a Saturday. That does raise some questions for a two-day event like WrestleMania which has proven to be a great success for WWE since they began implementing it in 2020. It’s unclear when the change would go into effect if at all as WWE has yet to comment on the matter.
Stay tuned to Comicbook for updates on the UFC and WWE.
