Endeavor Group’s CEO, Ari Emanual Talks About His Massive Plans of Turning WWE Into UFC 2.0

WWE’s potential sale has been the major focus of discussion for a while now. Vince McMahon reportedly returned to the company earlier this year for facilitating the sale of the business.

Finally, here comes a great Monday for McMahon as the World Wrestling Inc. made headlines, cracking a blockbuster deal with UFC’s parent group, Endeavor. As part of the deal, WWE and UFC will merge into a new company.

Ari Emanuel, The CEO of endeavor, shares his insight about the newly formed UFC 2.0

Ari Emanuel, The CEO of endeavor, will continue the same role in the newly formed publicly traded company with a slight majority of share of 51 percent. It, however, proves equally beneficial to McMahon, who demanded 9 billion as the deal value but ended up getting 9.3 billion in return.

Read more: “Too Much Ego…”: Fans Turn On Vince McMahon as He Reportedly Hindered a Major WWE Move

Before they made the deal official, Emanuel, and McMahon sat face to face for an interview with CNBC’s David Faber. During the conversation, Emanuel reflected on how the deal will benefit both the shareholders. The new CEO of the merger company noted, ‘This is gonna be UFC 2.0. as it relates to all the things in the flywheel that we can bring. We have unbelievably attractive economics. The balance sheet is incredible, our debt ratio is less than 3 times. Our free cash flow conversion is unbelievable. So I think when people look at this business on a combined basis, and also look at the remaining assets, for both shareholders, it’s incredible.’

While Ari Emanuel will run the new company, Dana White and Vince McMahon will remain in their respective places as the UFC president and WWE’s executive chairman as well. Despite the change in role, McMahon gained a position in WWE.

Vince McMahon reportedly regained his sway over the creative

The deal officially marks the end of control of the McMahon family in the business after a long 70 years. But Vince McMahon’s control over the biggest sports entertainment giant’s creative reportedly resurfaced.

While there have been many reports regarding Vince McMahon no longer being a part of WWE’s creative, McMahon himself also told CNBC during a recent interview that he is no more a part of creative decision-making. But as long as last night’s WWE Raw is concerned, it didn’t seem to be the case.

According to a report, McMahon regained control over the creative during Monday night’s show and made multiple directions to the script before and after the show went on air. Reports have also confirmed that he is heavily back with the creative following the new deal with Ari Emanuel, who doesn’t want to let McMahon go from the helm of WWE.

We are yet to see how things move further for the biggest sports entertainment company as UFC 2.0. It also remains to be seen where the significant changes will eventually lead to.

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Do you think the merger decision will bring significant results for WWE in the future? Let us know in the comments.