Eric Bischoff opened up about WWE’s merger with UFC and detailed some of the changes he believes will take place.
The world of professional wrestling was shocked on April 3rd when it was announced that WWE would be merging with UFC under parent company Endeavor to form a new $21+ billion entity. Talk of a sale has been in the air for months, ever since Vince McMahon elected himself back to the board of directors back in January after retiring in July amidst allegations of sexual misconduct and hush money payments.
McMahon will serve as Executive Chairman of the Board of the new corporation. Dana White remains UFC President while former WWE CEO Nick Khan now serves as WWE President.
Speaking on the latest episode of 83 Weeks, former WCW President Eric Bischoff gave his thoughts on the sale and what types of cost-cutting changes could be made, stating his belief that UFC staff may be in more danger than those employed by WWE.
“Will there be cost cuts? Of course there will, because there’s a lot of duplication.
“This is a guess, I suspect that there’ll be more layoffs … within UFC than there probably will be in WWE. I say that because WWE is a very sophisticated, mature business compared to UFC.”
According to Bischoff, the sports entertainment giant is ahead of UFC when it comes to establishing its presence as a brand as well as marketing, distribution, and licensing due to its being established for over 40 years. In fact, he compared the corporation to one of the top companies in the world: Disney.
“[WWE is] probably as sophisticated as any other media company out there, including Disney and some of the other ones.”
Eric Bischoff Thinks UFC Will Have More Layoffs Than WWE
Continuing, Bischoff reiterated that he believes Vince McMahon’s empire won’t face as many staff cuts as those under Dana White.
“I think there’s going to be layoffs — I know there will be — but I think the majority of them are going to come on the UFC side as opposed to the WWE side. I’d be more concerned if I was working for UFC right now, than if I was working for WWE.”
Vince McMahon recently signed a new WWE contract, and the new deal included updated code of conduct rules for the Chairman of the Board.
h/t WrestlingInc