Rumors have been swirling that Dwayne Johnson is one of the many names in the running looking to purchase WWE.
However, according to a report from PWInsider, this would not be a smart move for the man known in WWE as The Rock. They said:
“He would need a lot of partners and/or financing and honestly I don’t think he would want to make the move. As mentioned above, the lion’s share of WWE’s revenue comes from TV rights. If that market changes drastically and the partners change what they are willing to pay for WWE, the company’s value changes drastically. Since it will cost billions to buy WWE, that kind of downturn could be catastrophic for a non-content providing investor.”
Dwayne Johnson Could Wrestle At WrestleMania
This news comes as Johnson is rumoured to be making a potential return to the Royal Rumble and a date with The Tribal Chief, Roman Reigns on The Grandest Stage Of Them All: WrestleMania. Johnson is also currently in the midst of filming several major Hollywood movies.
With Vince McMahon officially back in WWE as a board member, the wheels are in motion for a sale. CNBC’s Alex Sherman reported last week the company has retained JPMorgan to advise on a potential sale. Brendan Coffey of Sportico noted WWE’s current market cap is $6.6 billion.
According to Sherman, any sale would likely happen no later than the middle of this year as WWE also prepares to start negotiating television rights fees. The company’s current deals with NBCUniversal and Fox for Raw and SmackDown are worth $1 billion each over five years. They expire in October 2024.
While The Rock is not hurting for money, he certainly doesn’t have the resources on his own to purchase WWE. That being said, he does have previous when it comes to buying McMahon’s businesses.
Johnson, along with a group of investors, purchased the XFL in August 2020. The deal was on a much smaller scale for around $15 million. The move came after the XFL filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after suspending operations when its inaugural season was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whether or not Johnson decides to purchase WWE remains to be seen, but as unlikely as it is, you cannot rule out anything in wrestling at the moment, no matter how far-fetched it may seem.