WWE went through a huge change when Endeavor bought controlling interest in the company. They will merge with the UFC and a lot of people are surprised about this, including Eric Bischoff.
While speaking to TMZ Sports, Eric Bischoff stated that he was really surprised that Vince McMahon sold his company to Endeavor. He has previously stated on his own podcast that he didn’t think Vince McMahon was going to sell in the first place.
“I did call the Endeavor play early on, I think I was one of the few people that called that one, but never the less, still surprised. I didn’t think I would see the day when Vince McMahon would actually sell WWE and apparently that’s what has happened.”
“I guess that’s what surprises me so much. I was thoroughly convinced that at the end of the day, I really thought that Vince would make a move to take the company private, that was going to be the play that I predicted. But to sell the company, it’s still surprising me, to this day, I never would have bet on that.”
“There’s always going to be change, right? I don’t think we’re going to see anything over the next six months or year that will be noticeable to us. There may be some management announcements made along the way, but for the most part, I think it’s going to be business as usual for quite some time.”
“We’ve seen a lot of that over the years. I don’t know how much value that really has for both companies. It would make sense that we will see more of it but I think the real tangible benefits that will be seen down the road are going to be, you look at the WWE business model and the UFC business model, they are two separate businesses. One is fictional storytelling and one is sport, but there are a lot of similar parallels within their business plan. You’ve got live events, arena events, you’ve got PPV, you’ve got streaming, you’ve got ad sales, you’ve got international television rights, you’ve got licensing, you’ve got merchandise. You’ve got a lot of areas where UFC could benefit from the maturity WWE has in some of those businesses. Now UFC is still a relatively new business and WWE has been around for decades, and decades, and really has a sophisticated business model, so I think you’re going to see a lot of benefits to UFC as a result of the relationship with WWE.”
“I don’t think so. I think WWE has proven that sports entertainment aka professional wrestling is indeed a viable global media phenomenon. I think AEW is in a perfect position to take advantage of that and benefit from what WWE has done. Just like WCW did.”
Eric Bischoff
We will have to see what’s next for WWE. Obviously, there are a lot of unanswered questions at this point. Eric Bischoff was certainly surprised by this news.
H/T to Ringside News
Follow Corey at @CoreyBrennanBS on Twitter
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