More news:

WWE hired a full team to manage a sale including legal people and strategic communication people. So a sale is incoming.

The AEW rumors have a shit ton of merit. Shahid is onboard if Tony can get a backer. And they may be able to work a deal with the Saudi PIF to invest in it. Fairly sure Shahid could close the deal if Tony gets them interested. Running a fed is messy, but having a fed that will give you representation and fly over to do shows on demand is worth a strong investment. As point out they almost never take full control, this is more of the relationship they want. Assuming he cannot buy the fed outright, I assume Tony will want the library and make a serious bid on that alone.

Comcast, Peacock, Netflix, Disney and Warner all turned down Vince last time he wanted to sell, so unless he slashes the price considerable not sure any are interested. But a wrestling nerd like Tony would do whatever he could to buy them.

Believe Vince planned to push the sale after the next Saudi show to the royals. Not sure they will want to buy the entire fed as they lack American inroads to really make real use of the asset.

Eitherway, target is the sell the fed in the second half of this year.

Also HHH is likely to resign in the near future. He is against the sale and has no plans of working for WWE owned by someone else. Steph is gone for good most likely as well.

Why would anyone invest in the concept of a smaller, less successful wrestling company taking over a bigger one? What track record does Shahid Khan have of running a media venture like this? Why would the Saudis want or even need them when they could just buy it themselves? There are fairytales, folks, and then there are fairytales.

As for an outright 'merger', Shahid Khan doesn't have the capital to buy WWE without liquidating most of his assets. Even if he did it, he would then be faced with a massive conflict essentially having to choose between moving Raw off Monday nights and selling the Jaguars, since he would be removed as an NFL owner if he went head-to-head with Monday Night Football.

If AEW merges with WWE that can only mean one thing....



CM PUNK WWE RETURN CONFIRMED

The Saudis could not get LIV Golf onto US TV even with Trump involved.

Also weird logic that a smaller fed cannot run a bigger one, but a group with no experience running a wrestling fed would be fine doing so.

And Shahid is not a young man, and if he buys the company with Tony and his sister, he can bypass the estate tax. Estate tax is 40%. And the kids save 5 billion in taxes. And Raw can be moved to a different day if needed. Not like that is a dealbreaker. Shahid not gonna be active in running the fed, just an investor basically. Same for the sister most likely.

Jan 13, 2023 8:31:20 GMT Jake said:

If AEW merges with WWE that can only mean one thing....



CM PUNK WWE RETURN CONFIRMED

Then sent to a Saudi show

Jan 13, 2023 8:38:19 GMT c said:

The Saudis could not get LIV Golf onto US TV even with Trump involved.

Also weird logic that a smaller fed cannot run a bigger one, but a group with no experience running a wrestling fed would be fine doing so.

And Shahid is not a young man, and if he buys the company with Tony and his sister, he can bypass the estate tax. Estate tax is 40%. And the kids save 5 billion in taxes. And Raw can be moved to a different day if needed. Not like that is a dealbreaker. Shahid not gonna be active in running the fed, just an investor basically. Same for the sister most likely.

WWE isn't a 'wrestling fed'. They haven't behaved like a wrestling fed in years. In fact, the further they move away from that, the more money they seem to make.

How does Shahid fund this venture? Where does he get 5-7bn in cash from? Getting into bed with the Saudis? Do you have anything to support this wild speculation?

AEW can barely run AEW, let alone run WWE.

Jan 13, 2023 8:46:27 GMT Todd said:

Jan 13, 2023 8:38:19 GMT c said:

The Saudis could not get LIV Golf onto US TV even with Trump involved.

Also weird logic that a smaller fed cannot run a bigger one, but a group with no experience running a wrestling fed would be fine doing so.

And Shahid is not a young man, and if he buys the company with Tony and his sister, he can bypass the estate tax. Estate tax is 40%. And the kids save 5 billion in taxes. And Raw can be moved to a different day if needed. Not like that is a dealbreaker. Shahid not gonna be active in running the fed, just an investor basically. Same for the sister most likely.

WWE isn't a 'wrestling fed'. They haven't behaved like a wrestling fed in years. In fact, the further they move away from that, the more money they seem to make.

How does Shahid fund this venture? Where does he get 5-7bn in cash from? Getting into bed with the Saudis? Do you have anything to support this wild speculation?

I posted it was something that could happen.  Shahid is worth in excess of 12 billion it is reported.  And this would be a way to pass on his wealth without paying the estate tax in the US.

And again, what do the Saudis know about running a western entertainment enterprise?  Most people being pitched WWE never ran a live sport related sitcom.  But hey, maybe a hollywood showrunner will know more than Tony about athletic communities rules and how they vary by state, what venues draw strong wrestling crowds, the history wrestlers have together, etc.

That Hollywood showrunner probably knows more about wrestling than Tony Khan knows about making a video game.

Maybe Tony should work out what he wants to do with ROH before even considering spending any more money on literally anything.

" Please Dad, it can be my birthday and Christmas present! " - Tony Khan, January 2023.

Jan 13, 2023 18:06:30 GMT @aaron said:

Maybe Tony should work out what he wants to do with ROH before even considering spending any more money on literally anything.

He brought back the wildly successful Honor Club what more do you want!?!?

I wish some billionaire had all the wrestling and just made an all in one platform tbh.

Jan 13, 2023 1:24:25 GMT NATH45 said:

Jan 13, 2023 0:22:39 GMT SummerSlam 1998 said:

Simpsons

There hasn't been a good episode in 25 years.

Well they have ever episode

Still think people are not really getting the big picture here. US tax code is 40% of Papa Khan's wealth goes to the US government due to the estate if he passes it directly to his kids. Corporations are not people for purposes of the estate tax, so he co-buys a company with his son and dies, the company transfers to Tony, and the government gets 0. I see him being interested solely to move more wealth to his kids, as right now they will have to pay about 5 billion of their inheritance to the US government. Should Papa buy WWE at the current estimated price of 9 billion, kids only need to pay about 1 billion in taxes, and would essentially get 4 billion more in inheritance than they would right now.

But hey, it is only 4 billion dollars. Why would anyone do something like this for so little right?

I've been away for a few days & I come back to fireworks. OH BOY!

The scope of their lives vs. ours is really insane.

Jan 13, 2023 23:04:54 GMT c said:

Still think people are not really getting the big picture here. US tax code is 40% of Papa Khan's wealth goes to the US government due to the estate if he passes it directly to his kids. Corporations are not people for purposes of the estate tax, so he co-buys a company with his son and dies, the company transfers to Tony, and the government gets 0. I see him being interested solely to move more wealth to his kids, as right now they will have to pay about 5 billion of their inheritance to the US government. Should Papa buy WWE at the current estimated price of 9 billion, kids only need to pay about 1 billion in taxes, and would essentially get 4 billion more in inheritance than they would right now.

But hey, it is only 4 billion dollars. Why would anyone do something like this for so little right?

You spout information like it’s accurate but you’re pulling it out of your ass.

He already has many companies to avoid paying inheritance tax. How do you know he has 5bn in cash available? No one knows how much of his money is tied up although we can presume a lot is tied up in his bumper business which generates of revenue billions annually.

Then you go on to say he can buy WWE for 9bn. He is only worth 11bn in total.

Cuckoo land.

-there was an all-talent meeting before SD tonight

-Triple H said that Vince coming back is to strictly oversee the sale and nothing will change as far as creative goes

-He said Vince does still give input but Triple H has the final say on everything now.

-Triple H led the meeting and Kevin Dunn also spoke, backing up Triple H’s words

Todd gets it.

Jan 13, 2023 23:36:03 GMT Todd said:

Jan 13, 2023 23:04:54 GMT c said:

Still think people are not really getting the big picture here. US tax code is 40% of Papa Khan's wealth goes to the US government due to the estate if he passes it directly to his kids. Corporations are not people for purposes of the estate tax, so he co-buys a company with his son and dies, the company transfers to Tony, and the government gets 0. I see him being interested solely to move more wealth to his kids, as right now they will have to pay about 5 billion of their inheritance to the US government. Should Papa buy WWE at the current estimated price of 9 billion, kids only need to pay about 1 billion in taxes, and would essentially get 4 billion more in inheritance than they would right now.

But hey, it is only 4 billion dollars. Why would anyone do something like this for so little right?

You spout information like it’s accurate but you’re pulling it out of your ass.

He already has many companies to avoid paying inheritance tax. How do you know he has 5bn in cash available? No one knows how much of his money is tied up although we can presume a lot is tied up in his bumper business which generates of revenue billions annually.

Then you go on to say he can buy WWE for 9bn. He is only worth 11bn in total.

Cuckoo land.

Yet still Tony is looking to buy, with the backing of pops.   Surely they just buy an unrelated company with dad's money to dodge the estate tax, or lock it all into a trust that pays out over time.  I mean, why would they spend cash on something desired, that is only available for a limited time, using one of the most common estate tax dodging methods?

As for the cash, if you recall the original post, they want other investors.  But if he wanted to do it alone, Papa can leverage most of what he owns for loans.  Generally the rich can get leveraged loans for up to half their assets.  So that 11 billion he has is really 16 billion in leverage he has.  Tony can likely leverage AEW and his companies as well for even more.  It is what we call buy, borrow and die in the US, and it is encouraged for people like Papa to do this to avoid paying taxes in their lifetimes.

And Barrons does rate the Khan's as likely buyers. So kind of crazy you all do not think this is possible, when business groups even see Khan as a top buyer.  But hey, what does a 100 year old business magazine focused on business moves know about finances or business sales right?  

www.barrons.com/articles/wwe-sale-vince-mcmahon-merger-aew-51673552324

Morgan Stanley analysis showed that Fox lost cash on Smackdown, and the losses are expected to get much worse.  

-In the 2020-21 television season, FOX paid $196.7 million on the show and ended up with $134 million in losses. In 2021-22, FOX paid $208.5 million and ended up with $145 million in losses. Current projection is $155 million in losses for 2023-24, and $166 million in losses for 2024-25.

Numbers are in line with an old Meltzer analysis that showed Raw also was costing USA about the same in losses that were growing each year.

USA paid WWE $265 million per year with slight increases for Raw and lost $142 in 2018 growing higher each year as cost increased and ratings declined.  

Numbers would make these two shows two of the highest loss leaders on television right now.  Also would explain the fast push to sell before they renew the TV deals.  Very likely they will no longer be on Fox or USA, or any networks their parent companies control.  And once companies decline to air the shows, the value of WWE stock will rapidly drop, tanking the price of the company as a whole.  So they NEED to sell it before serious negotiations start about how much the shows themselves are actually worth.

Ironically, WWE loses networks about 4 times what Warner pays AEW their shows.  

c with the double-down.

WWE stock up 25% this week, despite being such a bad performer.

But shitty performance means why would Disney or Peacock pay for a company currently losing them over a 100 million a year?  Also means that the value of Raw and Smackdown in terms of selling to a network is about 25% of what they are getting.  Which would be about what AEW is paid.  

Not such a shitty performer, WWE's share price's lowest point in the last 4 years is still higher than at any point in it's first 19 years as a publicly traded company.

And your copy/paste from reddit response of the Morgan Stanley analysis c, has already been proven to be a distortion of the facts. Wrestlenomics discussed this recently, "live sports are a loss leader, so is Smackdown, so is Raw, so is Dynamite."

But really.. the point is, overall wrestling (WWE, AEW) simply doesn't have the live weekly audience to command big money. I'm sure there's reruns of Friends and The Big Bang Theory pulling bigger numbers. Eventually, one day, we'll just see a complete abandonment of this fixation on American Network/Cable deals and a move to a global streaming platform (not "The Network") and we then we won't be talking USA television ratings and " the demo " anymore, we will be talking in total live global viewership and streams. Or similar deals to the Australian market, we're WWE get's it's own cable channel and supplies endless amount of content to support the weekly product. 

And I love the doomsayers happy to see WWE fall from it's graces. If the WWE takes a massive hit over the next year due to losing it's television deals, or anything close - let's call it a WWE recession, then the entire American wrestling market takes a hit, including AEW. Dynamite cant pull a million viewers and floats around 0.2 in the demo. Rampage is a joke ratings wise. WWE pulls 2 million for Smackdown and 1.6 million for RAW on average, and demos in the 0.5 - If WWE's television product is revalued as a result of everything happening, AEW's television deal's value is then in question. I'm sure there's a technical term to define what I am saying. Similarly, if house prices fall 25% in your neighbourhood, it's time for evaluation to match the market.  

And, more worrying, if WWE's television exposure is reduced, readjusted, moved, messed with after a sale - exposure to the overall industry is reduced. The same for it's presentation, the marketing, the brand, the live event business, don't mess with it. It is the gateway to the industry. AEW doesn't create new fans, it doesn't grow outside it's core audience or looks to want to. Everyone loses if WWE loses. 

The money being lost is in the American network. If they continue to lose money on the America networks, they will likely be removed from the American networks or offered far less money. Cable networks are losing money hand over fist as people cut cable entirely, they cannot afford to burn 100 to 150 million in losses on 2 - 3 of content a week. Adjust to what WWE is worth to American networks, they will see a 30% drop in profit unless they slash costs drastically. This goes for whoever buys it. And this is why we talk about American metrics, they are the highest paying network for English language entertainment, and most shows live or die based on their ratings here.

WWE also is seriously looking at losing being on a broadcast network unless they take that pay cut. They do not take it, they lose being broadcast on terrestrial TV, which many cord cutters reverted back to. This is 15% to 20% of the television market.

So yeah, they are in a bit of trouble unless a television network thinks 2 million viewers for 2 to 3 hours is worth taking 150 million a year in losses. Raw's competition is NCIS which gets 4 to 5 times the ratings at 20% of the cost. For live sports, WWE comes nowhere near football. AGT gets two to three times the ratings Raw gets. There is no situation really where they would want Raw over a cheaper product as when Raw is on, their viewers are likely elsewhere.

So only way that statement about the cost and numbers is misleading is if US networks want to pay 150 million dollars to get people to change the channel.  

Fed runs as a business. Tony runs AEW as a hobby. I don’t see Shad ponying up and liquidating it all for a hobby that can’t be proven to be making any real money.

Tony is in the green it is reported. Barely most likely, but he makes cash in live gates. Once house shows start, he should start getting more cash rolling in.

TK ain't buying WWE, you can stop this silly charade.

(But if it does happen, you can quote this post and attach it in your signature to prove that there was one time in a very long time you didn't spout something that wasn't entirely bullshit)