Vince McMahon Explains Why He Sold WWE To Endeavor

In historic news today, WWE has been sold to Endeavor and the pro wrestling organisation will merge with UFC under a new parent company. WWE has been sold for $9.3 billion and Vince McMahon will continue to be a part of WWE as Executive Chairman of the new parent organisation. Nick Khan will serve as President of WWE.

Following the announcement of the merger, McMahon and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel appeared on CNBC, during which Vince McMahon explained why he decided to sell WWE.

"It's the right time. It's the right time to do the right thing. It's been the next evolution of WWE. I could probably do what Ari does right now with UFC, it'd take me 10 years. In that time, he'll be 10 years ahead of me. It makes all the sense in the world for all the synergies we have to extract all the value we can out of the marketplace," McMahon said.

Much of the talk ahead of a sale had been around if Vince McMahon would step away from the company, especially after he was forced to resign as WWE CEO and Chairman in disgrace in July 2022 amidst a sexual misconduct and hush money scandal. McMahon noted that he was willing to step away from WWE but Ari Emanuel stated he wasn't going to let the 77-year-old walk away from pro wrestling.

"I would have bodyslammed him if he thought he thought he was going to leave. Here's a man who has seen around the corner at every beat over the last 40 years of this business and has a vision of this business way before a lot of people see it. Him now being able to utilise what we've built in our flywheel, I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I have Vince McMahon, a visionary that sees around the corner, I have Dana White and what we've built. That's pretty unstoppable," Emanuel said.

McMahon admitted Emanuel didn't have to push too hard to keep him around, adding: "Not that much. I love what I do. I love building WWE. All my life, it's my passion. To have an opportunity to have it grow like this from an exponential standpoint. It can't be better than that."

On McMahon stepping away, Emanuel stated: "I wasn't going to let him. We've had a relationship for 23 years. There's a trust, a friendship. When you're going into business and going forward, that's important. I'm glad he chose us because it was a very competitive situation. For us, it's an honour, and we're so lucky because of his vision of where the business is and where it's going."

As part of his role as Executive Chairman of the new parent company, Vince McMahon will be involved in WWE creative "on a higher level", as opposed to being "in the weeds" when he was head of creative.

H/T to Fightful