The merger between WWE and UFC became official on September 12 as the two companies have now formed TKO.
The merger was part of WWE’s transaction with Endeavor.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Endeavor President and COO Mark Shapiro commented on the future of both companies following the merger.
“We’re ready to fire out of the gate,” said Shapiro. With the companies combined, Endeavor and its leadership team will “now have a much stronger and firmer seat at the table. But our first mission is to fully capitalize on this insatiable demand for premium content and live events.”
Speaking to Deadline, Shairo commented that WWE and UFC have “a lot less overlap than you’d think,” calling WWE “family centric” in the sense that “it kind of indexes more entertainment. Versus MMA, which indexes extremely diverse, very international, and kind of college age.”
Shapiro said that WWE and UFC media rights deals won’t be rolled together domestically as they are in different renewal cycles, but “Internationally, there is a lot of opportunity for that. But currently [in the U.S.] we’ll be negotiating UFC and WWE individually, just by [virtue] of the fact that they’re in different renewal cycles.”
WWE rights for WWE SmackDown and WWE Raw expire in the fall of 2024. Fans can find Nick Khan’s comments on the rights negotiations by clicking here.
On the topic of cost synergies, Shapiro commented, “We will be wringing out cost synergies, but at the same time identifying those areas that are under-monetized or where revenue synergy significantly exists. And that’s happening across our domestic and international media rights, our sponsorship and global partnerships, our product licensing, enhancing our live events, through ticket yield, venue fees, and premium experiences and then just overall expanding internationally, all of these businesses and doing it with a halo of the Endeavor flywheel which cannot be underestimated the influence and impact that will bring.”
Fightful will update fans on all the fallout from the WWE-UFC merger as it continues to happen.
Fans can learn more about the merger by clicking here
