Media Expert Predicts Which Corporation Will Buy WWE in The Near Future

By Connor Casey

The possibility of WWE getting sold to a major media corporation has been a widely-discussed topic in recent years. The Sports Business Journal's John Ourand offered his educated prediction on what will happen to the pro wrestling promotion on Monday, stating he believes NBCUniversal will step up and attempt to buy WWE outright after pushing to get the television rights to both Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown when negotiations for both shows begin in 2023. 

Raw has been back with NBCUniversal since 2005, while the Blue Brand was under the NBCU umbrella from 2010-19. WWE and Fox then agreed on a billion-dollar deal that would put SmackDown on network television beginning in October 2019, making it the promotion's new flagship show. WWE also has deals with NBCU for NXT to air on USA on Tuesday nights and for the Peacock streaming service to house the WWE Network library and live pay-per-view broadcasts in the United States.

Update on WWE Sale

WWE witnessed a massive leadership change in 2022 as Vince McMahon, surrounded by controversy and potential federal investigation after it was revealed he allegedly paid nearly $20 million in hush money for various sexual misconduct allegations, stepped down from all of his positions within the company. Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan became the new Co-CEOs while Paul Levesque took over the company's booking as its Chief Content Officer. 

Khan had previously told Ourand back in January that the promotion was not actively seeking a sale but had taken some "inbound calls" about the possibility. It was reported shortly after McMahon's departure that a sale was not being pursued at the time. 

One of the widely-held beliefs within the business world about the WWE was that without Vince McMahon the company would be susceptible to a financial collapse. The opposite was been proven true in the months after McMahon left, as WWE stock reached $80 for the first time since May 2019 back at the start of December. Sales rumors fired up again in October when the stock reached a 52-week high with CNBC reporting a sale could happen before the television rights deals were renewed.

However, a wrinkle has been thrown into the equation. While reporting on two more women coming forward with sexual misconduct accusations, The Wall Street Journal noted that McMahon was attempting to make a "comeback" to WWE under the belief that all of the controversies would have blown over if he had remained in power. McMahon still has 80% of the voting power on WWE's Board of Directors, and Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics pointed out he would be against a sale if he were trying to return to the company. According to numerous reports, higher-ups within WWE don't want McMahon back.

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