To many, the one prevailing thought following the multi-billion greenback merger between the UFC and the WWE is one among uncertainty.
Each entities, giants of their respective fields, have ploughed new floor within the worlds of sports activities leisure and combined martial arts. They’ve each primarily created industries, putting their respective manufacturers on the prime desk in relation to advertising and marketing income, but in addition creating — at the least within the UFC’s case — a aggressive setting which has stood combined martial arts as an entire alongside the likes of boxing as a professional commodity. You don’t have to love it, however the days of calling combined martial arts a distinct segment sport are lengthy gone.
However what precisely does this courageous new world appear like? In keeping with Mark Shapiro, president of Endeavor, WWE will comply with a blueprint established by the UFC.
“We’re going to run the UFC playbook. The chance to place Vince McMahon’s inventive head with Dana [White] and Ari [Emanuel] goes to create a big quantity of worth for shareholders,” Shapiro stated through the Sports Business Journal.
Shapiro famous {that a} substantial a part of WWE’s income, round 80%, stems from its pre-existing media offers, and the hope inside Endeavor corridors is that this may be multiplied by the institution of further income streams.
“That’s the technique,” Shapiro defined. ‘That’s the way it has efficiently performed out for the UFC during the last six years. Keep in mind once we purchased it for $4.1 billion? Folks thought that value was loopy. Now, it’s valued at $12.1 billion. I imply, what a narrative. We hope to do the identical factor with the WWE.”