Vince McMahon Returns to WWE

[Dolphman 3000]

7 minutes ago, Ziggy said:

Even if they came to or closing a deal with the Saudis, do you think they would try to hold off till Wrestlemania to announce something. I'd think at this point it would be almost impossible to kayfabe everyone for that long. If they were to announce something like that before Mania, it would probably mess up plans for people like Rock or Cena who maybe not want to be connected to that at this time.

Saudis shown in a Skybox during the broadcast like the WCW wrestlers shown in a Skybox during WrestleMania 17

[TheVileOne]

22 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

I don't think it's misleading just because we've seen this before especially in the MMA world. That's the reason why I had/have an issue with Helwani a lot of times. There were so many fights that eventually happened that were reported elsewhere that Helwani didn't report but because it didn't come from he had to chime and say, "No, that fight isn't done yet.". He wouldn't report any other detail. Not why it isn't done yet or which party isn't satisfied with what. Turns out that person was right usually, and Ariel was just being a dick because he got scooped on something. It just wasn't officially announced in like a matter of minutes. Everything isn't microwaveable. I don't think it's a journalist not doing their due diligence especially when a bunch of fuckers tease something big will happen and then nothing. 

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

2 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

Why did I waste 30 seconds watching that?

[Dolphman 3000]

5 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Why did I waste 30 seconds watching that?

Media pundits and their corporate overlords are mad that someone else is influencing the market, and therefore they missed out on a prime opportunity for insider trading

[TheVileOne]

3 minutes ago, Dolphman 3000 said:

Media pundits and their corporate overlords are mad that someone else is influencing the market, and therefore they missed out on a prime opportunity for insider trading

But they didn't...

[Elsalvajeloco]

6 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

But they didn't...

Well, apparently, you made us watch that bullshit so apparently they did something.

[DreamBroken]

3 hours ago, Joel Martin said:

 

Great timing on that since WWE just announced their own text message version of the hotline yesterday and advertised it in a similar way.

"Find out who Roman Reigns is battling at WrestleMania39! Will John Cena make another comeback? Who will be inducted into this year's WWE Hall of Fame Class? Don't miss out! Text "TUNEIN" to 79458 today. And you never know, you may hear from a Superstar from time to time, too"

[The Natural]

Made BBC News:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-64237701

Edited January 12, 2023 by The Natural

[Go2Sleep]

10 hours ago, John from Cincinnati said:

I’ve been avoiding giving into my worst instincts and preemptively worrying about Cody’s push, but I almost thought it was decent timing on the injury that he went down on top before Vince could get bored and middle him. And now, who knows what he’s coming back to. 

I thought Cody had heat with HHH and Vince was the one who really wanted him.

Not that HHH wouldn't be capable of putting that aside to do business, or that Vince has good booking instincts even for people he does like, but Cody's WWE move always seemed like a big gamble for him. Working the HIAC match (while incredibly stupid and dangerous) probably made him too big of a deal to ignore no matter who's in charge.

[Greggulator]

10 hours ago, Dolphman 3000 said:

Media pundits and their corporate overlords are mad that someone else is influencing the market, and therefore they missed out on a prime opportunity for insider trading

However the “story” came out did not move markets one bit. All it did was essentially annoy a lot of people to the point where the WWE had to address it. 

[Greggulator]

My new theory about “the leak” is that that Reddit dude who has some I side stuff on the actual show decided to pass along a rumor he heard. The low-level wrestling journalists have used that guy as a source before and ran with it. Maybe they got a second “insider” to say something about it and the “insider” is someone else who heard a rumor passed along third hand.

I also would assume that Alvarez and Dave are a lot better sourced than the low-tier folks. And the texts Bryan said he was getting were from different wrestler or other contacts who read or heard about the Reddit dude posting something and they started passing along anything they heard. But, rightfully, the more experienced journalists know how this works a little bit and waited to hear from someone who would actually know and not a guy who posts accurate spoilerz on Reddit and a wrestler they exchanged Instagram messages with a few times.

As far as the stuff with Dana White and Endeavor: I pay zero attention to MMA. But that is not the first time the CEO or owner of a company said “yeah, nothing is going on here” and then, yeah, something was actually going on and it was being reported.

Keep in mind that the UFC was a private company at the time. It is very easy for Dana White to say “yeah, nothing happening here” because of that fact. And at the time of the initial acquisition Endeavor was also privately held with the Intent of one day going public. (That is how what is called a venture capital-funded company works.) But they were still several years away from making that happen.

If you are a privately held company, you can more or less say what we you want about negotiations and the like because you are conducting a private transaction. There are certain limits of course but that is just the nature of things. 

But that story was probably out there because Endeavor was around for a while and has its roots in being a well-heeled talent agency with a lot of connections across the entertainment industry. It is really easy for that rumor to get out and it is also easy-ish for that to get a lot more of a level of confirmation from the media. Dana White could deny it but there is a large amount of people (from people actually working on the deal to bankers to many attorneys) who would know.

The WWE, as bizarrely as it is set up, has a lot more things it has to worry about because it is a publicly traded company. That means they have federal regulators looking over the company. And while rumors about deals with public companies often get leaked ahead of time and end up in the media, it is really problematic for someone to leak about a possible transaction. If that person’s name gets out and it is someone who works for the company and owns a lot of shares, then that could result in some insider trading charges because it is someone with working knowledge attempting to game the system to their financial benefit and possibly at the expense of other shareholders. 

I know people are plenty of parsing of words about the response to the rumor. That looks a lot like a CYA thing. The WWE has been pretty open about it being for sale. It hired an investment bank. It is being shopped around but it can’t tip its hand one way or the other about a sale to any party because that can open up a big bag of worms from regulators. 

I can’t stress this enough. The eventual sale of the WWE story is not going to get broken by the wrestling media. It is going to get broken by reporters who actually write this sort of thing — big outlets like the WSJ or Financial Times, media and entertainment trade outlets like Variety, some niche trades that track business acquisitions, etc.

Maybe - and I stress maybe - Meltzer would be able to because he has been doing this a long time and worked for actual news outlets before (like The National.)

[TimLivingston]

Gregg beat me to the private company part: You can’t compare this to the UFC sale because the fact it’s publicly traded means there are many more rules and hoops to jump through regarding any changeover of ownership. Vince consolidating the board means he’s going to end up making the final call on who purchases, but him mentioning the TV deal being a part of it is the elephant in the room: If you sell to the Saudis for the biggest cash out, you run the risk of not getting a TV deal nearly as nice (or one at all) as you would with Comcast/Fox/whoever. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, Greggulator said:

A. But that is not the first time the CEO or owner of a company said “yeah, nothing is going on here” and then, yeah, something was actually going on and it was being reported.

Keep in mind that the UFC was a private company at the time. It is very easy for Dana White to say “yeah, nothing happening here” because of that fact. And at the time of the initial acquisition Endeavor was also privately held with the Intent of one day going public. (That is how what is called a venture capital-funded company works.) But they were still several years away from making that happen.

If you are a privately held company, you can more or less say what we you want about negotiations and the like because you are conducting a private transaction. There are certain limits of course but that is just the nature of things. 

But that story was probably out there because Endeavor was around for a while and has its roots in being a well-heeled talent agency with a lot of connections across the entertainment industry. It is really easy for that rumor to get out and it is also easy-ish for that to get a lot more of a level of confirmation from the media. Dana White could deny it but there is a large amount of people (from people actually working on the deal to bankers to many attorneys) who would know.

Financial Times, media and entertainment trade outlets like Variety, some niche trades that track business acquisitions, etc.

Maybe - and I stress maybe - Meltzer would be able to because he has been doing this a long time and worked for actual news outlets before (like The National.)

 

27 minutes ago, TimLivingston said:

Gregg beat me to the private company part: You can’t compare this to the UFC sale because the fact it’s publicly traded means there are many more rules and hoops to jump through regarding any changeover of ownership. Vince consolidating the board means he’s going to end up making the final call on who purchases, but him mentioning the TV deal being a part of it is the elephant in the room: If you sell to the Saudis for the biggest cash out, you run the risk of not getting a TV deal nearly as nice (or one at all) as you would with Comcast/Fox/whoever. 

I just did though so somebody stop me. Anyway, to that point, it looks like the person who initially broke the UFC story was Jeremy Botter (IIRC right before he left MMA reporting altogether for wrestling). Now, he got some of the smaller details wrong like Robert Kraft being involved (although there would be several celebs involved like TYLER PERRY~!) and the earlier hints that Tencent or another huge Chinese conglomerate would be involved. This didn't stop the UFC from sending out an internal memo out to their employees saying the story was false. Then two or three weeks later, as James E. Cornette would say, "wouldn't you know who won the pony?". The hilarious thing is the person who was part of the denying was Dave Sholler who **check notes** left the UFC four months later to work for the Sixers "cause he wanted to be closer to his family". The less hilarious thing is the UFC swept up that front office, and everyone who worked for the UFC in years past under Zuffa ownership (from Sholler to a bunch of the international VPs) got let go or left abruptly before they could get let go.

Also, when it was sold, Variety called it the Ultimate Fighting Club which I will look to trademark later today.

[Raziel]

6 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

 

 

Also,  when it was sold, Variety called it the Ultimate Fighting Club which I will look to trademark later today.

You don't talk to about Ultimate Fighting Club.

[Infinit]

 

[FourPostMassacre]

13 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Why did I waste 30 seconds watching that?

Click bait?!

Anyways since Vince can’t retcon Taker’s streak he may as well have Nick Khan go over Roman once he finishes brokering this deal that’s going to put Vince on top of the company and a giant heap of cash to pay off people for an eternity. 

[Greggulator]

Another component of the Saudis:

The reason why the WWE is of interest is because it has decades of valuable intellectual property. But intellectual property is only good if customers have access to it -- a streaming platform. Maybe the Saudis could own the IP and then lease it like the Peacock deal. But just like the TV rights: There's a major PR backlash for any respectable media company that does business with the Saudi Investment Fund. Maybe they could start a sportswashing channel with WWE, Newcastle FC "classics," their football league that just purchased Cristiano Ronaldo's soul and whatever else they can get their hands on. Also: Does any US city want to deal with the backlash of taking Saudi money to host WrestleMania or any of the PPV events? I'm sure some of the billionaires that actually own stadiums like Jerry Jones won't care so much and will gladly pocket $50M. But a lot of stadiums and arenas have at least a public funding component to them and what politician wants to deal with those headlines?

But -- if the Saudis do buy the WWE, Vince can just wash his hands of the WWE. It's their toy to do what they want with from then on. Maybe Vince will want the cash (and who is turning down a few extra billion?) but that really puts in jeopardy the WWE's legacy. 

I keep on hopping back and forth on the Saudis as a possibility for the acquisition as you can tell.

There was a great New Yorker article about the LIV Tour. And one of the components in it that was stressed is they do want to make a financial profit out of their investing in LIV. Maybe they are completely oblivious to the backlash since they're holding out hope LIV will become a thing even though by all accounts it's a crappy product despite it having some huge names. Or maybe the WWE's IP is so highly valued someone will cave. But there is so much obvious downside risk to them buying something they then can't use. 

All speculation and conjecture on my end. 

[Dolphman 3000]

3 minutes ago, Greggulator said:

Another component of the Saudis:

The reason why the WWE is of interest is because it has decades of valuable intellectual property. But intellectual property is only good if customers have access to it -- a streaming platform.

A WWE Hall of Fame in Riyadh probably wouldn't get many visitors from the US - flights there aren't exactly cheap

But they could probably fill stadiums for live wrestling on a regular basis between Saudi Arabia and Great Britain, so abandoning North America entirely wouldn't be out of the question. Saudi Arabia as a tourist destination for Europeans is much more affordable.

Would American talent be willing to relocate overseas?

[Casey]

A roundtrip ticket to Riyadh is cheaper than a roundtrip ticket to Tokyo, but Tokyo is still a tourist spot. People that would go to a physical WWE Hall of Fame are like the people that spend $400+ on tickets to Disney, they have the disposable income to burn.

But that's all moot, since Saudi Arabia wouldn't do anything drastic like move the company HQ to Saudi, or stop touring in North America. Why would they disrupt operations like that? And it'd be a bad look, PR wise. Absorbing something like WWE into their investment fund is because of 1) money and 2) furthering their image through the goals of Vision 2030.

It's the same line of thinking that they'd shut down the women's division, or make them wear a hijab in America. It's just not going to happen.

[Elsalvajeloco]

38 minutes ago, Greggulator said:

Another component of the Saudis:

The reason why the WWE is of interest is because it has decades of valuable intellectual property. But intellectual property is only good if customers have access to it -- a streaming platform. Maybe the Saudis could own the IP and then lease it like the Peacock deal. But just like the TV rights: There's a major PR backlash for any respectable media company that does business with the Saudi Investment Fund. Maybe they could start a sportswashing channel with WWE, Newcastle FC "classics," their football league that just purchased Cristiano Ronaldo's soul and whatever else they can get their hands on. Also: Does any US city want to deal with the backlash of taking Saudi money to host WrestleMania or any of the PPV events? I'm sure some of the billionaires that actually own stadiums like Jerry Jones won't care so much and will gladly pocket $50M. But a lot of stadiums and arenas have at least a public funding component to them and what politician wants to deal with those headlines?

But -- if the Saudis do buy the WWE, Vince can just wash his hands of the WWE. It's their toy to do what they want with from then on. Maybe Vince will want the cash (and who is turning down a few extra billion?) but that really puts in jeopardy the WWE's legacy. 

I keep on hopping back and forth on the Saudis as a possibility for the acquisition as you can tell.

There was a great New Yorker article about the LIV Tour. And one of the components in it that was stressed is they do want to make a financial profit out of their investing in LIV. Maybe they are completely oblivious to the backlash since they're holding out hope LIV will become a thing even though by all accounts it's a crappy product despite it having some huge names. Or maybe the WWE's IP is so highly valued someone will cave. But there is so much obvious downside risk to them buying something they then can't use. 

All speculation and conjecture on my end. 

IMO It goes back to when I talking about Fury vs. Usyk being a lock to land in Saudi Arabia. Eddie Hearn, who basically is boxing's Tony Khan as a lot people just see him as Barry Hearn's spoiled kid, is out here making excuses for sportswashing when it comes why Anthony Joshua (who Eddie promotes) continues to fight in Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, in the Boxing Scene article I saw weeks ago, Frank Warren (Fury's promoter in the UK and co-promoter in the US) who has been at this for decades promoting some of the biggest names here and abroad almost has a defeatist attitude or at least way more realistic in basically saying, "the Saudis got the most money...the fuck you want me to do?". That comes down to purses ballooning to an absurd level and none of these guys being stars enough to justify them. They ain't any Mayweather vs. Pacquaio type fights anymore. There is no this century's Tex Rickard or Hugh "Huge Deal" McIntosh willing to fund these fights where each guy is making in excess of $40 or $50 million. The networks aren't going to even lift a finger to help. The Saudis are the only ones willing to do that or else they won't happen. An Al Haymon can do it because he's basically on an island to himself and has been this shadowy figure who no one sees for two solid decades who can somehow get folks to give him $300-$400 million in funding. Everyone else? No.

That's why I believe in the case of WWE that the frontrunner is from Saudi Arabia and they're praying for a last second miracle that someone can pony up enough money, from America, and at least outwardly not as reprehensible. However, the WWE has been unofficially up for sale for the last several years (going back to the UFC sale). If Disney or some of the other huge US players were in the running, they would have bought it already. I believe that those parties were already interested prior to the whole Vince is a piece of shit and got pushed out aspect, however, the reality is they will not give Vince whatever the asking price is. They just won't. They can put all the stuff with meeting with Iger and all this. Unless they can get somehow change their mind, all that doesn't mean anything. If they want $6.5 or $7 billion, it's going to be someone who actually wants to buy it at that price. They're not going to coerce anyone to do it.

[Casey]

I doubt this happens, but OH BOY.

Barrons, a magazine owned by the Dow Jones, and has articles published on the Wall Street Journal's website, claims that another interested party in buying WWE is... Shahid & Tony Khan. They were told by someone close to the transaction (JP Morgan?) that Khan would likely look for a financial partner so they could pool their assets together.

They also claim that the other three most interested parties are Endeavor (UFC's owners), Comcast (NBC) and of course, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

Edited January 12, 2023 by Casey

[Matt D]

I just want Tony to get the library. I know certain parties would be aghast by such an idea, but those parties are incorrect. There's much more of a chance of us getting Omni shows with Tony owning the footage. 

[Dolphman 3000]

2 minutes ago, Casey said:

I doubt this happens, but OH BOY.

Barrons, a magazine owned by the Dow Jones, and has articles published on the Wall Street Journal's website, claims that another interested party in buying WWE is... Shahid & Tony Khan. They were told by someone close to the transaction (JP Morgan?) that Khan would likely look for a financial partner so they could pool their assets together.

They also claim that the other three most interested parties are Endeavor (UFC's owners), Comcast (NBC) and of course, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

Translation: Tony Khan called Barron's and said he's making a run at it

[Dolphman 3000]

WWE May Be Up for Sale. This Company Is Interested, and Who Else Might Be.

Quote

There are at least three companies are generally seen as in a position to buy. Barron’s has confirmed that another is interested.

All Elite Wrestling—the top rival to WWE ,led by Tony Khan and family—is in the pool of potential buyers for WWE, a person close to the potential transaction told Barron’s, adding that the Khans will likely look for a financial partner to acquire the asset. Tony Khan’s father Shahid Khan, a co-owner of AEW, already owns the football team Jacksonville Jaguars and the English soccer club Fulham Football Club, indicating the duo have deep pockets.  

 

[John from Cincinnati]

4 minutes ago, Dolphman 3000 said:

WWE May Be Up for Sale. This Company Is Interested, and Who Else Might Be.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGJOeBp1qY4&ab_channel=ThomasBarnett