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Vince McMahon Returns to WWE

John from Cincinnati
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Greggulator

Greggulator

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2 minutes ago, John from Cincinnati said:

https://frontofficesports.com/public-investment-fund-saudi-arabia-wwe-sale-liv-golf-vince-mcmahon/

This makes absolute sense. Sportswashing is a real thing. The Saudis already invested in the LIV Golf tour — complete with an event at the Trump course in New Jersey and own Newcastle FC. The profitability of the WWE is besides the point to them, but I am sure it does not hurt.

What is also terrible about that is how Vince fancies himself as a true Patriot and of course he would sell his company to the Saudi government.

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Elsalvajeloco

Elsalvajeloco

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9 minutes ago, Greggulator said:

This makes absolute sense. Sportswashing is a real thing. The Saudis already invested in the LIV Golf tour — complete with an event at the Trump course in New Jersey and own Newcastle FC. The profitability of the WWE is besides the point to them, but I am sure it does not hurt.

What is also terrible about that is how Vince fancies himself as a true Patriot and of course he would sell his company to the Saudi government.

They've already taking over a good chunk of boxing in a sense where all the major events save for a handful have been in Saudi Arabia, and Fury vs. Usyk should it happen will likely happen in Saudi Arabia.

That's why oddly to me it feels like boxing had a really down year in 2022 with only a few of the biggest fights happening stateside. I noticed this a few years ago when Andy Ruiz and Anthony Joshua rematched on college football championship weekend. That was suppose to be a big fight, but because it happened THAT day in Saudi Arabia, it might as well been the Pinstripe Bowl happening on a Thursday afternoon while everyone is still at work or in rush hour traffic. That's not a good sign for WWE.

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Dolphman 3000

Dolphman 3000

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Looking at LIV's schedule...it's pretty much one golf tournament in a different country every month

Their inaugural season last year had most of the tournaments in America, but now they're getting away from that with US events every 3 months

Foreboding for what might happen with WWE

 

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matt925

matt925

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LIV can’t get a tv deal in the US because of who owns it. Their events air on YouTube and average like 60k viewers. Making money was never the main point, but having positive global influence for Saudi Arabia was. It’s not happening and now there’s stories of lots of drama behind the scenes and how LIV may not be around for the long haul. 
 

If Saudi Arabia bought wwe they would be off us television for good, they may have trouble running hundreds of events every year, at a minimum they would be smaller events. And there would be no positive influence for Saudi Arabia. Doesn’t make any sense. Paying $800 million for some wwe shows doesn’t make any sense either, but at least that’s a 10x lower investment that isn’t going to kill off what they invest in. 

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GuerrillaMonsoon

GuerrillaMonsoon

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6 minutes ago, matt925 said:

LIV can’t get a tv deal in the US because of who owns it. Their events air on YouTube and average like 60k viewers. Making money was never the main point, but having positive global influence for Saudi Arabia was. It’s not happening and now there’s stories of lots of drama behind the scenes and how LIV may not be around for the long haul. 
 

If Saudi Arabia bought wwe they would be off us television for good, they may have trouble running hundreds of events every year, at a minimum they would be smaller events. And there would be no positive influence for Saudi Arabia. Doesn’t make any sense. Paying $800 million for some wwe shows doesn’t make any sense either, but at least that’s a 10x lower investment that isn’t going to kill off what they invest in. 

There's some irony there in the prospect of Vince deciding he wants to complete his legacy by selling his 40 years of blood, sweat and tears for billions of dollars, and in the process, bringing professional wrestling back into dingy, dimly lit smoke filled arenas.

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Elsalvajeloco

Elsalvajeloco

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21 minutes ago, matt925 said:

LIV can’t get a tv deal in the US because of who owns it. Their events air on YouTube and average like 60k viewers. Making money was never the main point, but having positive global influence for Saudi Arabia was. It’s not happening and now there’s stories of lots of drama behind the scenes and how LIV may not be around for the long haul. 
 

If Saudi Arabia bought wwe they would be off us television for good, they may have trouble running hundreds of events every year, at a minimum they would be smaller events. And there would be no positive influence for Saudi Arabia. Doesn’t make any sense. Paying $800 million for some wwe shows doesn’t make any sense either, but at least that’s a 10x lower investment that isn’t going to kill off what they invest in. 

I remember when Flash Entertainment (UAE) owned a very small piece of UFC, and there was a small story (via Bloody Elbow which is now more blog than news site) about the makeshift arena (much like the one used for Joshua vs. Ruiz II in Saudi Arabia) for a PPV in Abu Dhabi was built through slave labor. Now, this was several years ago now but that shit caught me offguard and didn't get one iota of mainstream coverage since IMO it was more inference than anything credible. However, after that, Flash Entertainment IIRC sold off their portion quietly at some point and UFC started using a venue that was already in place or had their own people in place to build the venue like we saw with UFC Fight Island a couple years ago.

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Greggulator

Greggulator

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A lot of this is also pointing to a deal in the works. Vince made the first official approach to get back on the board in late December. I am sure he had a more infirmal approach earlier. But he had an official response signed off, and then the board said no thanks, and he did his consent letter a few weeks later.

It’s not like Vince drafted the consent letter and rewritten rules. He used a law firm, and not some rinky dink one, but someone with knowledge of how to pull off a boardroom coup like that. So something took a while. You can’t just do something like this impulsively. 

The stock price jumping that high is also a tip. Smart money may have heard of something brewing. 

My hunch: The Saudis and Vince have been talking about this for a while and other people on the inside were hoping someone else made an offer instead because it is the Saudis.

My reasoning: An actual company or private equity fund can only pay up to a certain amount for the WWE with cash or some kind of equity component. No one is going to write a $7 billion check. It will be a certain sum of cash or equity, with the rest financed by taking loans. (This is common.) But interest rates have risen a lot this year (A LOT), so that becomes an extra long-term cost.

And while the WWE has a lot going for it as a company, it is an expensive purchase. So you have to pay a steep price for the company and now also have more expensive debt repayments to make going forward. And these loans are not like a fixed-rate mortgage. They are really complex with different structures. This is driving Elon Musk nuts with Twitter right now because he used a lot of debt to buy a crappy company at a really high price.

But the Saudis? They have like $600 billion in their investment fund. They are paying insane amounts of money for their stupid golf tour. They will pay for this in cash all at once and do not care about the price.

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Elsalvajeloco

Elsalvajeloco

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2 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

WWE going full Saudimania would be good news for Tyson Fury's chances of becoming the Can't Enter America International Champion

FWIW going back that discussion weeks ago about Fury's starpower or lack thereof: Mike Tyson got suspended by the Nevada athletic commission and subsequent commissions followed and it was a MASSIVE story at the time. 

Tyson Fury is heavyweight champion (WBC & as well linear even though Usyk is now Ring magazine champ which usually means linear but w/e), and he cannot come into the ENTIRE United States. Little to no sports coverage.

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Cobra Commander

Cobra Commander

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America stopped caring about heavyweight boxing once it became dominated by Europeans.

As for the Saudis... Saudi Arabia has the money around to do stuff like paying for the college of Saudi citizens when they leave the country to attend college. They have some money and big events are always nice for the sake of keeping people happy with the established order.

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Elsalvajeloco

Elsalvajeloco

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3 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

America stopped caring about heavyweight boxing once it became dominated by Europeans.

I think that's more of a misnomer because the Klitschkos always did good numbers on HBO even when they were coming on Saturday afternoon. Hell, the Joshua-Klitschko fight got crazy coverage and it also helped the fight was pretty damn entertaining. 

There is something about Fury (maybe it's cause he is in worse shape than any major HW in history) that doesn't resonate with people even though he tries his hardest to be entertaining from his crazy interviews to the over the top singing.

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Ziggy

Ziggy

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When The Rock tweeted his praise and connection to Nick Kahn the idea of The Rock owning WWE seemed like something somewhat plausible. Basically the same scenario as Rock buying XFL from Vince. If there is heat between Hunter and Vince it would be ironic for Hunter and even Shawn to have to answer to Rock even though I doubt Rock would be as hand on ad Vince was.

If Vince was to sell the Company then I think convincing Rock to attain Ownership would be the best case for Vince because it would keep the company in the hands of a Wrestling guy and the Rock is beloved enough even outside of wrestling that it would create enough positive buzz. Plus he'd be a 3rd Generation promoter. Unless Vince wants to sell it out of spite, Selling it to another network or major corporation is risky because you don't Ownership of your company the hands of people who may not value Pro Wrestling

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Go2Sleep

Go2Sleep

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Vince selling to the Saudis would be his best swerve since Montreal.

It wasn't on anyone's radar until a couple days ago, but in retrospect, it's so obvious. Vince makes out like a bandit and everyone who stuck by him gets rewarded by working 10 Crown Jewels a year with no tv exposure (except the women who all just have their contracts terminated).

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Greggulator

Greggulator

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The Rock is not buying the WWE. Like… whatever entity buys the WWE will need $7 billion.

The Rock bought the XFL right before it was going to hit bankruptcy for $15 million. And he did that with a private equity firm called RedBird Capital that makes sports themed investments. And they only have $2.5 billion or so to go out and buy companies to sell a few years later. 
 

But what could happen — a bunch of different investors and investment firms get together and pool their money to buy the WWE. And The Rock could be a part of that as a public face type of person.

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