Also before news of this broke, 6 of 11 members of the board resigned, as would be expected if sold.

Sounding like nothing will be announced tonight. Legit sources now saying the deal isn’t done. Either this was leverage for more bids (unlikely, especially because the Saudi offer is apparently a huge overpay nobody will match) or they just haven’t made it official and we won’t get an announcement for a day or two.

WWE cannot announce until binding paperwork has been signed or it would be market manipulation.

I’m putting a $1000 fixed odds bet on Mansoor winning the rumble today 😒

Winning by throwing out Mr America!!!

Now it makes sense why Stephanie wanted no part of it.

I don’t even know what to say. PIF has stakes in everything but it usually only amounts to 10% or less. Total private ownership of a global juggernaut like this is completely unprecedented.

Shit guys, we're gunna have to piss during Baron Corbins matches, now that we won't have any more women's wrestling in WWE.

Jan 11, 2023 7:31:47 GMT Todd said:

Now it makes sense why Stephanie wanted no part of it.

I don’t even know what to say. PIF has stakes in everything but it usually only amounts to 10% or less. Total private ownership of a global juggernaut like this is completely unprecedented.

I doubt it was her choice.  Women are not CEOs in Saudi Arabia.  

I mean Eddie Howe and Newcastle United said they needed reinforcements during the January window, I didn't think he and the Saudi PIF were going to buy WWE for him...

Jan 11, 2023 7:48:40 GMT c said:

Jan 11, 2023 7:31:47 GMT Todd said:

Now it makes sense why Stephanie wanted no part of it.

I don’t even know what to say. PIF has stakes in everything but it usually only amounts to 10% or less. Total private ownership of a global juggernaut like this is completely unprecedented.

I doubt it was her choice.  Women are not CEOs in Saudi Arabia.  

They will soon announce Sabu as ceo and the Iron Sheik as VP of talent.

Jan 11, 2023 11:18:04 GMT spladle125 said:

Jan 11, 2023 7:48:40 GMT c said:

I doubt it was her choice.  Women are not CEOs in Saudi Arabia.  

They will soon announce Sabu as ceo and the Iron Sheik as VP of talent.

Muhammad Hassan to return soon as well.

Fucking loved Hassan. Such a great character. His terrorists garroting Taker was amazing. Dude was on the path to being a massive star before UPN killed him.

Jan 11, 2023 12:46:05 GMT c said:

Fucking loved Hassan. Such a great character. His terrorists garroting Taker was amazing. Dude was on the path to being a massive star before UPN killed him.

Should've let Hassan and his terror guys stay. The original retribution they were.

The last few posts in this thread have been weird.

I’m still hoping this won’t happen. They put some feelers out there with a deliberate leak and a shitstorm has ensued and it won’t happen. Glass half full.

Jan 11, 2023 5:43:35 GMT RT said:

SRS is live now talking about it and he’s his usual “nothing is confirmed, this could all be just to gauge the audience reaction,” self because he doesn’t actually know shit and doesn’t want to look stupid if he gets something wrong.

More credible sources saying this is happening is more accurate to me. Anyway there’s a thread getting updated on wreddit here if you want to follow along: reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/108vbqf/recap_of_srs_on_fightful_podcast_wwesaudi_rumors/

KEY POINTS

-doesn’t see how Sami or Kevin could stay after this. MVP too (he’s a Muslim turned atheist, which is illegal in Saudi Arabia)

-if Triple H leaves he will stay in the wrestling business. Speculates he would start his own promotion.

-Wrestlers he has talked to are really mad and he absolutely sees people walking over this.

-“what do you not have when Saudi Arabia owns your company? A female CEO.”

-thinks that some people are more upset about Vince taking back control than the Saudi ownership, which says a lot about how Vince is viewed by employees now.

-believes USA and Fox will have a problem with renewing TV deals. References the LIV Golf thing not getting any TV slots.

-says this would ruin prominent free agents from going to WWE. Mentions Jay White who is a free agent soon and would definitely have got an offer from Triple H.

You can probably throw in Sonya Deville who probably has 1 foot out the door with her best friend gone due to her sexuality being a no-no to this current regime and with how proud & open she is. This also becomes an issue with how pro LGBTQ+ WWE can be now if controlled by KSA. 

I assume right now there is a handshake deal to start a sale. Everything lines up. Vince is back, most of the board resigned, JP Morgan was brought on to handle a sale...

All we do not know is who the buyer is. And the only buyer that would make a move without publicity would be something like the Saudis. Netflix, Peacock, Comcast, Warner, etc, we would have had heard from media sources as well.  Also they would wait until the licensing agreements were closer to wrapping up.

Meanwhile we know the Saudis would pay to wrap a deal up and cut out the competition, doubly so if they can get on American TV.

I wonder if there will be a non compete clause in that Vince and Co. cannot start another sports entertainment company to rival WWE within X number of years.

For instance, we bought a lucrative company in Saskatchewan where we did not originally have much of a presence. There was a 10 year non compete. The MINUTE that was up the guy started a rival business, took back all of the Saskatchewan work and edged us out of that market, unless of course we wanted to buy this new company now. Pretty sure that guy was my hero in that instance.

Non-compete clauses are very, very close to being ruled illegal in the US. FTC is preparing to ban them and go to court defending the decision. They will claim that they are anti-competitive. The ban will have public comments then likely go live. The ban will likely go into effect in April or May, and will nullify all existing non-competes.

I was more hopeful for Disney buying it. Then we'd have WWE themed rides at the parks, and some crossovers among Disney characters and WWE.

Stone Cold Mickey Moustin.
The Underducker.
Goofy Maivia. "Finally, the Goof, has comeback, to Anaheim! *ah-hyuck*"

CNBC commented on it this morning and is saying the rumours are not true. Ariel Helwani (actual good source, close with Nick Khan, etc) is saying that no sale has been finalized yet and the company is still exploring all options.

I’m hoping last night was an intentional leak by Stephanie or someone high up to stop it before it could happen. Last ditch effort to save Vince from himself by creating a public shit storm. Fingers crossed.

That’s four strikes now for Kermit. Forget about him from now on.

Fozzie Bear told me @admin is going to buy THE FED.

Jan 11, 2023 16:52:35 GMT Todd said:

That’s four strikes now for Kermit. Forget about him from now on.

I’m surprised at some of the people that came out and corroborated his post last night. Cassidy and Muelhausen are usually pretty safe with their reporting. Now both have either backtracked or deleted tweets.

I’m not doubting they heard similar rumours from their sources but to definitively say the company was sold to the Saudis without confirming it was plain stupid. At least SRS had the decency to put the caveat “this is all rumours and nothing is official.”

Anyway if there’s smoke there’s fire so something happened last night to start all this. I’m leaning more towards an intentional leak to make everyone mad but at this point who the fuck knows. We just have to wait it out now.

Jan 11, 2023 17:44:59 GMT RT said:

Jan 11, 2023 16:52:35 GMT Todd said:

That’s four strikes now for Kermit. Forget about him from now on.

I’m surprised at some of the people that came out and corroborated his post last night. Cassidy and Muelhausen are usually pretty safe with their reporting. Now both have either backtracked or deleted tweets.

I’m not doubting they heard similar rumours from their sources but to definitively say the company was sold to the Saudis without confirming it was plain stupid. At least SRS had the decency to put the caveat “this is all rumours and nothing is official.”

Anyway if there’s smoke there’s fire so something happened last night to start all this. I’m leaning more towards an intentional leak to make everyone mad but at this point who the fuck knows. We just have to wait it out now.

I agree. I figure there must be something to it. Then again, who knows what. The final death knell for wrestling journalism for me was when a WWE plane was delayed and the dirtsheets called it a hostage situation.

It’s also weird to me that WSJ have been all over this situation and not reported anything, not even a rumour.

Jan 11, 2023 18:13:38 GMT Todd said:

Jan 11, 2023 17:44:59 GMT RT said:

I’m surprised at some of the people that came out and corroborated his post last night. Cassidy and Muelhausen are usually pretty safe with their reporting. Now both have either backtracked or deleted tweets.

I’m not doubting they heard similar rumours from their sources but to definitively say the company was sold to the Saudis without confirming it was plain stupid. At least SRS had the decency to put the caveat “this is all rumours and nothing is official.”

Anyway if there’s smoke there’s fire so something happened last night to start all this. I’m leaning more towards an intentional leak to make everyone mad but at this point who the fuck knows. We just have to wait it out now.

I agree. I figure there must be something to it. Then again, who knows what. The final death knell for wrestling journalism for me was when a WWE plane was delayed and the dirtsheets called it a hostage situation.

It’s also weird to me that WSJ have been all over this situation and not reported anything, not even a rumour.

Bixenspan has pages of text ready to go once this becomes official. This type of story is what he lives for. 

People are calling it “The Vinsurrection” :lol:

First lawsuit filed against Vince for returning to the board: news.bloomberglaw.com/esg/vince-mcmahons-return-to-wwe-helm-draws-investor-litigation

paraphrased from wreddit comment: Saudi rumours make sense now. Everyone knew these lawsuits were coming and Vince isn’t going to come back and fight lawsuits for months that will devalue the company. Every buyer knows the longer they wait the cheaper they can get the company for. So Vince strikes a handshake deal with the only buyer that doesn’t give a shit then reinstates himself to try and get a deal through before the lawsuits hit.

Just to give you guys some background on who these Saudis are..

In 2021, they purchased stakes in the American video game companies Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, and Activision Blizzard. In May 2022, they purchased a 5% stake in the Japanese video game company Nintendo.On top of stakes in Capcomz Nexon, Uber, Boeing, Disney, Twitter, Facebook, Live Nation, BP, Bank of America and have invested $45 billion over the last five years in the tech sector.

Some people are acting like this is the MDK regime taking over.

It's awful for wrestling if they try to reinvent the wheel or tailor the product to a different audience. They'll own it, but will they directly run it? Likeky not.

Jan 11, 2023 19:51:15 GMT NATH45 said:

Just to give you guys some background on who these Saudis are..

In 2021, they purchased stakes in the American video game companies Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, and Activision Blizzard. In May 2022, they purchased a 5% stake in the Japanese video game company Nintendo.

On top of stakes in Capcon, Uber, Boeing, Disney, Twitter...

Yeah they invest in tons of publicly traded companies. But like Todd said earlier this would be the first time they take over a company of this size and turn it private.

Jan 11, 2023 5:43:35 GMT RT said:

SRS is live now talking about it and he’s his usual “nothing is confirmed, this could all be just to gauge the audience reaction,” self because he doesn’t actually know shit and doesn’t want to look stupid if he gets something wrong.

More credible sources saying this is happening is more accurate to me. Anyway there’s a thread getting updated on wreddit here if you want to follow along: reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/108vbqf/recap_of_srs_on_fightful_podcast_wwesaudi_rumors/

KEY POINTS

-doesn’t see how Sami or Kevin could stay after this. MVP too (he’s a Muslim turned atheist, which is illegal in Saudi Arabia)

-if Triple H leaves he will stay in the wrestling business. Speculates he would start his own promotion.

-Wrestlers he has talked to are really mad and he absolutely sees people walking over this.

-“what do you not have when Saudi Arabia owns your company? A female CEO.”

-thinks that some people are more upset about Vince taking back control than the Saudi ownership, which says a lot about how Vince is viewed by employees now.

-believes USA and Fox will have a problem with renewing TV deals. References the LIV Golf thing not getting any TV slots.

-says this would ruin prominent free agents from going to WWE. Mentions Jay White who is a free agent soon and would definitely have got an offer from Triple H.

I got blocked by SRS just now because I spoke to someone else on twitter about his feud with someone else, this dude vein searches himself on twitter! :rofl: :rofl: I didn't tag him or even badmouth him. What a baby.

I am months late, but I deserve my flowers/pomp & circumstance RT . SRS is an absolute hack to the __th degree, no more sourcing him for shit. 

Jan 11, 2023 19:59:30 GMT RT said:

Jan 11, 2023 19:51:15 GMT NATH45 said:

Just to give you guys some background on who these Saudis are..

In 2021, they purchased stakes in the American video game companies Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, and Activision Blizzard. In May 2022, they purchased a 5% stake in the Japanese video game company Nintendo.

On top of stakes in Capcon, Uber, Boeing, Disney, Twitter...

Yeah they invest in tons of publicly traded companies. But like Todd said earlier this would be the first time they take over a company of this size and turn it private.

Let's not forget they purchased a 85% stake in Newcastle United in late 2021. Which was met with much controversy.