Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a guest on CNBC’s Squawk on The Street on Thursday and was asked about WWE’s upcoming merger with The UFC into a single company owned by Endeavor. The merger was announced back in April and while both WWE officials and UFC President Dana White have emphasized that there won’t be much (if any) crossover between the two brands it does mean that Vince McMahon will technically have a boss in Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel. However, Johnson predicted that the merger will be a smooth transition.ย
“I see smooth sailing with those guys. They’ve known each other for a very long time,” Johnson said. “We all have, as a matter of fact, and I see smooth sailing with this. This has been a long time coming. If you think about where Vince (McMahon) started. I often talk about my seven bucks moment, how I had seven bucks in my pocket when I was cut from the Canadian Football League. Vince had his seven bucks moment as well when he leveraged every dollar he had for the very first WrestleMania. Years later, he creates this merger with Ari that is in the billions of dollars. I see, when I say smooth sailing, these guys are adamant on creating an incredible conglomerate that is going to entertain the masses. Between WWE, UFC, Bullriding, and probably other things that are coming down the pipe, I’m excited about this merger.”
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A big question regarding the merger that was asked throughout WWE’s latest investors’ conference call was whether or not the UFC or Endeavor would play a role in WWE’s booking following the merger. WWE CEO Nick Khan emphasized that won’t be the case.ย
“I can certainly represent emphatically to you on the creative that there’s no one at Endeavor or the UFC that has any interest in trying to interfere with that, in any way whatsoever,” Khan said. “I think [UFC President] Dana White would also represent to you that never or almost never, I don’t know the specifics but never would be my guess, have the Endeavor folks told him no, you should do this match or you should do it this way. That’s not what they do.”
“Creatively, we look forward to continuing to do what we do and the momentum that it has,” Paul “Triple H” Levesque added. “And on top of that, I speak for myself, I’m incredibly excited about what endeavor brings to the table and how we can utilize them to expand our efforts and really hyper focus on them internationally and, and growing what we do across the globe. I think they’ll be incredibly helpful there.”
