WWE and UFC have officially merged, with the transaction going through on September 12. The new group trades on the New York Stock Exchange as TKO.
While the two promotions will run as separate entities under Endeavor, they will have similar values and structure.
“UFC fighters are gonna stay focused on the UFC and WWE superstars obviously do something different in our ring,” Nick Khan told ESPN. “… but you also see in the UFC people with big personalities who, once their UFC run is done, once the UFC and the fighter says, ‘Hey, maybe now’s the time to call it a day,’ could those people have a longer life at WWE, an extended life with TKO? We think so.”
Ronda Rousey jumped to WWE after her UFC career was over and Brock Lesnar has gone between both promotions throughout his combat sports career. Isreal Adesanya has made it no secret that he wants to be part of WWE after his MMA career wraps.
WWE superstars have often been spotted at UFC events, including Nick Khan, Vince McMahon, Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, and Pat McAfee attending UFC 276.
“It’s not really his thing to go to basketball games, football games — it’s just not what he does,” Khan said of McMahon. “When he decided, ‘Yeah, I want to go,’ … and when he went, that’s when I believe he started thinking about it, and it all started to manifest when we engaged in a fulsome process starting this past January.”
The deal between Endeavor and WWE was announced on April 3.
“Where we want to get is where every UFC fan is a WWE fan and every WWE fan is a UFC fan,” UFC senior executive vice president and chief operating officer Lawrence Epstein said.
Epstein said UFC and WWE holding major events on the same weekend in one city and the two promotions going to tourism authorities and selling them on paying for the UFC and WWE as a package deal coming to their jurisdiction is a possibility.
Fans can learn more about the merger by clicking here.
