There is a new powerhouse company running the fight game. Following his WWE comeback in January, Vince McMahon made good on his desire to sell his sports-entertainment giant to an external company, landing a deal with Endeavor, the parent company of UFC. Upon the sale being announced, Endeavor CEO noted that he planned to merge WWE and UFC as one large publicly-traded company, TKO. Upon WWE’s sale to Endeavor being finalized this past September, WWE and UFC made that merger official, with top executives from both brands ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Even though they are technically united as one, it has been emphasized that there will not be any deliberate on-screen crossover between WWE and UFC. That said, there will be some synergy between the two.
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Triple H, Nick Khan, Dana White Attend Fight Together
The top brass from TKO sat ringside together this week.
As shared on social media, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE CEO Nick Khan, and UFC President Dana White attended the boxing event Hollywood Fight Nights: New York City on Thursday. This event, which was headlined by Callum Walsh vs. Ismael Villarreal, airs on UFC Fight Pass.
Through two months in the TKO era, there has been zero crossover between WWE and UFC aside from a couple of promotional videos. While there is no expectancy for WWE superstars to step into the octagon or for UFC fighters to tango in the squared circle, many have anticipated that WWE talent could be shown cageside for UFC events like how Rey Mysterio was showcased at UFC 290 in July.
Beyond small cameos like that, Khan himself has teased the idea of a supersized weekend promoted by both WWE and UFC.
“What everyone envisions is, can you set up an all-star TKO weekend where if SmackDown goes on Friday and the UFC goes on Saturday with a pay-per-view and WWE goes with a Premium Live Event on Sunday, can you do that from the same city?” Khan said. “Certainly a lot of cost efficiencies there in terms of production. But a lot of revenue efficiencies in terms of upside we think there as well.”
WWE’s next premium live event, WWE Survivor Series, goes down on Saturday, November 25th. UFC presents UFC 295 this Saturday, November 11th, headlined by Alex Pereira vs. Jiří Procházka battling it out for the vacant UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.
