I knew this was the destiny of both promotions since I was 12

Apr 3, 2023 13:31:47 GMT Jake said:

The Vince mustache is just glorious. 

Grecian formula for the…win? He looks like a character from a bad movie.

The weird thing about everyone asking whether or not he will be involved in creative is it all stems from the fact that people are moaning in fear that he’ll take back full control. I wish someone would ask him his thoughts on that.

That's his disguise to get out of legal trouble. Literally Conquistador.

RIP free live ppv on peacock

It's really full circle, I used to rent UFC 2 and Wrestlemania X from the same special interests section at Blockbuster the UFC and WWF tapes were literally mixed together with Faces Of Death and National Geographic: When Predators Attack tapes. Then the decade or so long rabbit hole I've gone down with the history of Pride FC I've learned really that MMA literally evolved directly from pro wrestling, not like kind of sort of did in a way, I mean like indisputable fact that there is no counter argument for, the sport was birthed right from the womb of pro wrestling out of it's vagina into the world.

Refrained from commenting on the rumored WWE sale until now because I saw no need to go into hysterics over a bunch of half-baked rumors, but now that the die is cast...

Not a fan. We all knew they were selling to someone, and I get it from their perspective, but I still didn't want to see it happen. Even though I hadn't watched regularly in over a decade I still had loyalty to WWE and the McMahon family for being such a huge part of my life. Even largely checked out I still rooted for them from afar. Always wanted them to succeed despite the product not being my cup of tea anymore. Not sure that will continue now the company is under new ownership. So long as there is still some way to watch my beloved old school wrestling I guess I can live with it. Pessimistic about the future though.

This is one of the biggest wrestling stories of our lifetime. Probably THE biggest for most of us. Biggest since the initial WWF expansion? Biggest since WWF bought out WCW? Think it has to be one of those two. Maybe the birth of AEW gets there one day depending on what their future holds.

End of an era. Thanks for the decades of entertainment.

Absolutely agree, this is bad for all wrestling fans. Want to see what will likely happen to arenas in the future watch AAA. Ads everywhere. With WWE's tech will be even more. All those fancy LED screens can be used to transmit ads. Free PPVs def gone.

Who knows what happens with the actual product but if profit is the goal quality will drop like a stone.

Got to be a bad day to be Miro. He has been sandbagging Tony knowing he could just go back to Vince. Now not so certain. MJF likely gonna be a lot easier for Tony to work with. Assume people will want to flee, and some already have. UFC is not known for taking care of people.

Seeing rumors that the reason this deal was approved was it was the one that allowed Vince to come back in power.

A lot of speculation at this point. Pure speculation.

Would some of UFCs influence be a bad thing? WWE lost.. no, wrestling lost its edge a long time ago. Plus, some of these UFC guys are better sports entertainers than actual sports entertainers. Imagine only having a press conference and weigh-in to talk millions of people into spending their money - and they do. And, wrestling has been afraid of its own shadow for years, UFC don't give a fuck and I know a lot of people like that.

Apr 4, 2023 5:37:53 GMT NATH45 said:

A lot of speculation at this point. Pure speculation.

Yep. And I really don't get all the doom and gloom to be honest.

Maybe I'm being naive but I don't see the style of the product changing that much. I know people are going to point to Raw, but in my view that is just a hangover from the sale.

Reported that Vince rewrote RAW 20 minutes before they went to air and took over the show from gorilla. The HHH era is already dead.

Apr 4, 2023 7:19:03 GMT Emperor said:

Apr 4, 2023 5:37:53 GMT NATH45 said:

A lot of speculation at this point. Pure speculation.

Yep. And I really don't get all the doom and gloom to be honest.

Maybe I'm being naive but I don't see the style of the product changing that much. I know people are going to point to Raw, but in my view that is just a hangover from the sale.

It'll be one of those wait and see things. As a shareholder I wouldn't want Vince back at the helm. I mean I know he paid it back to the company, but he also cost the company millions with the numerous 'alleged' sexual harassment suits against him and the payouts. Not to mention it's not a good look. 

I've been with the same company for 9 years technically, but also through 3 company sales. I've heard the 'don't worry nothing is changing' more times than most. Every day I waited for the other shoe to drop and watched as my team went from 40 to 10 and then 5 and now finally back up to 6. If you are the company being bought, you cannot make those promises because at the end of the day WWE is a publicly traded company and shareholders/investors want to see $$$$. If no $$$ then that means changes. 

Apr 4, 2023 7:25:26 GMT c said:

Reported that Vince rewrote RAW 20 minutes before they went to air and took over the show from gorilla. The HHH era is already dead.

Not sure if this is true or not, but sounds about right. Wrestlers past and present have said Vince is famous for doing that. So many things they could have done, instead we got...that. 

I feel like this will all end in Emanuel removing McMahon. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s ugly.

Apr 4, 2023 7:25:26 GMT c said:

Reported that Vince rewrote RAW 20 minutes before they went to air and took over the show from gorilla. The HHH era is already dead.

If this is true, then oh boy. Hope it doesn't become a trend. I am faithful they had a strong storyline justification to account for Reigns beating Cody. That's under jeopardy now.

WWE is touting this year's Wrestlemania as the most successful ever.





But run everyone the sky is falling!!

This is one of the most interesting views I've read about it from somebody really smart on a martial arts board I post on sometimes:

Yeh like I think people are still not picking up here that UFC is being merged with WWE - not the brands but the companies are.



When they talk about 'synergies' what they mean is that right now UFC and WWE both have seperate PR, HR, events, lighting, production, legal, marketing, finance, merchandising teams and more - they will now have an army of consultants work out the bare minimum of these that need to be kept seperate and otherwise those two will all become one - making huge cost savings while charging the same prices.



That is just the basics though, you cannot sell a deal of this magnitude on cost savings alone. They will then go on to negotiate TV rights deals, arena bookings, talent contracts, third party outsourcing as one company for both brands. They will look for areas where one brand is strong and another is weaker (i.e. WWE has better merchandising while UFC deploys sponsors more effectively) and look to align those so that both companies are strong (think more UFC ice cream bars and the big WWE entrance thing being brought to you by Prime).



Then fundamentally they will look at how the two products can compliment one another and drive consumers who only like one to liking both - that is stuff like cross promotion, content to appeal to different demographics (more reality shows for UFC possibly and introducing stuff like embedded or countdown to WWE), tweaking the product in terms of presentation or composition just enough to where market research tells you that current WWE/UFC fan who doesn't like the other brand will give it a go.



There is a whole world of stuff that you *can* do with these two properties to make one generate more profit for the other and vice versa and if you take out the level of debt that Endeavour have to fund this deal then you *will* do what you can do because you need to maximise that shit. $9bn is a high price for WWE make no mistake, people said Endeavour had overpaid for the UFC at $4bn and it paid off BIG but they are really doubling down here with this deal.



Strap in Sherbros, its going to be...something

I find it all really interesting but altogether doesn't effect me much. I was already losing interest in MMA when this company bought the UFC. They didn't really change anything radically just a continuation of the direction the promotion was already going with Zuffa; bland, boring, soul-less corporate run deal that I'm not willing to pay extra money for whatever cable package you need to follow it anymore. The Conor stuff got old pretty fast after the Mayweather fight and that was what, almost 10 years ago now? The whole sport evolved into something I'm not interested in. I used to really love Pride FC and all of the other leagues that were thriving there for a while, WEC with the smaller cage focusing on the smaller weight classes was essentially American version of Shooto, Strikeforce and Elite XC doing shit with Gina Carano and booking a Youtube street fighter into a main event draw, seeing King Of The Cage be like the place where older washed up guys go to fight but catching a young Rampage or Uriah Faber unknowns that will take it over in the future, that's some Attitude Era shit. Zuffa/UFC actively did their part to kill all of that over the years with a WWE style approach. Now all you have really is the UFC, every fighter seems to pretty much fight the same and says the same shit, all I ever see or hear about from the outside as a casual now is a bunch of Russian fighters with furry hats and some people named Jake and Logan Paul whoever the fuck they are. Pass. 

What does effect me is all of the old video library. With transition in ownership that is something you could see just vanish, all of the old tapes. I learned from the NFL they could decide literally overnight that there is no value in the old tapes anymore and the shit will just be gone from their streaming service or any programming, leaving old fucks like me everywhere scrambling to find tape trading groups on Facebook to find classic games. Eventually yes DVDs and VHS tapes are going to rot, so with new owners letting the old footage go it could just be lost to time in the future. People in the year 2343 need to be able to watch ECW too. 

He's right. We are in year 2 of new company. Like Endeavor, they literally picked us up and moved us. Nothing has changed overall except our name, which building I go to and who signs my paychecks. BUT...the board is pushing 'alignment' and 'synergies' and honestly they'd be dumb not to. They bought 3 companies last year and we all are under the main banner. Every year they have more and more plans to synergize us all.

If I'm Endeavor and I'm paying 9 BILLION for a company, I'm going to damn sure I get my money's worth. Maybe not the first or second year, but to think there will be no changes down the line or even some short term, would be myopic. That doesn't mean the sky is falling, they may very well be good changes, but we won't know until they happen.

Endeavour is basically Sabre buying Dunder Mifflin at the moment.

Apr 4, 2023 19:53:14 GMT Jake said:

Endeavour is basically Sabre buying Dunder Mifflin at the moment.

All I can think of is Michael Scott drinking orange juice out of the aluminum tin. “Gets ya right in the fillings.”

You guys were raging when you thought Saudi Arabia was going to buy the WWE and are upset that they merged with the UFC?

Make it make sense.

Apr 3, 2023 13:35:20 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I knew this was the destiny of both promotions since I was 12

You rule! 

Apr 4, 2023 9:10:29 GMT Emperor said:

Apr 4, 2023 7:25:26 GMT c said:

Reported that Vince rewrote RAW 20 minutes before they went to air and took over the show from gorilla. The HHH era is already dead.

If this is true, then oh boy. Hope it doesn't become a trend. I am faithful they had a strong storyline justification to account for Reigns beating Cody. That's under jeopardy now.

This is how chaotic things were.  Seth's segment cut while he was in the ring.

WWE would like to wish WWE the best with their future endeavour.

Apr 4, 2023 23:23:56 GMT KING KID said:

You guys were raging when you thought Saudi Arabia was going to buy the WWE and are upset that they merged with the UFC?

Make it make sense.

Mate I wanted the Saudis to buy WWE, more chance of them having a show up the north of England in Newcastle, if that were the case.

Apr 5, 2023 3:47:13 GMT c said:

Apr 4, 2023 9:10:29 GMT Emperor said:

If this is true, then oh boy. Hope it doesn't become a trend. I am faithful they had a strong storyline justification to account for Reigns beating Cody. That's under jeopardy now.

This is how chaotic things were.  Seth's segment cut while he was in the ring.

I think that got debunked. Someone who has accurately posted scripts in the past, posted the script from hours before the show and it hadn’t changed.

I heard that the script was not changed and finalized hours before the show, but then a lot of reports that the script was being changed as the show was going on.  Hard to believe this was the show they planned in advance to do for raw after wrestlemania.  It being changed to book on the fly and change storylines feels more likely.

Apr 5, 2023 9:20:46 GMT Jake said:

Apr 4, 2023 23:23:56 GMT KING KID said:

You guys were raging when you thought Saudi Arabia was going to buy the WWE and are upset that they merged with the UFC?

Make it make sense.

Mate I wanted the Saudis to buy WWE, more chance of them having a show up the north of England in Newcastle, if that were the case.

Yeah because the UFC doesn’t do international shows…. 

We are going to get a lot more international events now then ever. That also probably means we’re going to get a lot of international wrestlers getting big matches to headline these international PPVs. 

Big money is on Brawl for it All 2, WWE vs UFC.