Tony Khan is the head of both AEW and ROH, and according to the man himself, he had interest in purchasing WWE prior to the announcement that the sports entertainment giant would be merging with UFC.
News of a WWE sale has been in the works for months, ever since Vince McMahon announced in January that he was returning to the Board of Directors in order to help facilitate a sale of the company. Numerous potential buyers were said to be in the mix, including AEW President Tony Khan and his father Shahid Khan.
In the end, it was announced that the company would be merging with UFC under parent company Endeavor to form a new $21+ billion entity. A recent SEC filing revealed that the name of the new company is currently New Whale Inc., though this name is said to be a placeholder and is expected to change when the sale is finalized. Endeavor head Ari Emanuel will serve as CEO of the new corporation, while Vince McMahon is Executive Chairman of the Board.
“It’s A Big Positive” – Tony Khan On WWE’s Merger With UFC Under Endeavor
Speaking in a new interview with Maggie and Perloff, Tony Khan confirmed that he had interest in adding WWE to his list of assets prior to its deal with Endeavor. Though he didn’t go into detail about his interest, he did make it clear that he saw the news of the UFC merger as a positive for the wrestling business as a whole.
“I can’t speak to that except to say that I was interested. It will also be very interesting to see what happens with that sale. Certainly, in many ways, it’s a big positive to the pro wrestling business.”
Continuing, Khan spoke about attendance and streaming numbers being high for the wrestling business as a whole, and said that AEW’s part in that has been extremely positive.
“I think the huge attendance numbers and TV and streaming numbers for pro wrestling and the great sales for AEW on pay-per-view and all the big merchandising numbers show that pro wrestling is really back as an industry in many major ways in 2023. AEW is a big part of the conversation. That’s all been really positive for us.”
h/t ComicBook.com