(From left) Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Paul “Triple H” Levesque Photo: Getty Images
If Vince McMahon did indeed sell WWE to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, well that’s something every wrestling fan knew could happen for a while. While no deal has yet been officially confirmed or even addressed, it has always been a distant buzz on the airwaves. However, rumors of a sale of the company have grown louder since Nick Khan came on board (he makes big deals). Combine that with WWE shows in Saudi Arabia — for all the flashy, blaring reasons not to — and the connection was relatively easy to make for anyone who wanted to connect the dots.
They just weren’t dots that anyone wanted to connect. Although everyone knew it could happen, it wasn’t the sort of thing you wanted to try and understand. Sure, horrible and disgusting beings come together all the time, but it’s not like spending your free time contemplating hypothetical connections between bog monsters. It’s hard to even wrap your arms around it before even thinking about the industrial soap you’ll need to clean those arms afterwards.
However, it feels like we should all better start this process.
Tuesday’s news that Stephanie McMahon is stepping down as WWE’s co-CEO barely had time to settle before Twitter erupted with rumors that Vince McMahon had already finalized a sale of WWE to Saudi PIF and the company again would become private. There was no official word from either party in the rumor business, however there were lots of tweets by reputable wrestling journalists who suggested the sale was complete – although nothing official had happened at the time of writing. Let’s say there’s just a smoke explosion.
What we know so far
One thing is certain: Stephanie McMahon is out. She returned from furlough last year and rode to the rescue for WWE, stepping in as co-CEO after her father was pushed out amid a sexual harassment scandal, and now she’s definitely left the company entirely. And she did so immediately after her father, Vince, was elected CEO of WWE in a cursory vote on Tuesday. (Vince never gave up his controlling interest in voting rights in the company and reportedly threatened to block any sale or new TV deal unless he returned to the board.) Nick Khan is now WWE’s sole CEO, having had previously shared the title with Stephanie.
Earlier this week, when the elder McMahon abruptly returned (in a hostile manner, many would say) to initiate a sale of the company, the Saudis are said to have been keen. You were one of the few names to be mentioned so prominently.
What does the reported sale mean for WWE?
To reiterate, there hasn’t been anything official yet, just a lot of fuss and rumors and unconfirmed reports. Nobody can imagine what happens from here. So let’s guess!
Given the speed of all this news, if it turns out to be a sale to Saudi Arabia, it’s hard to believe Vince didn’t have this in his pocket before ever sending that letter to the WWE Board of Directors , in which he informed her that he was going to break down the door. And when all of this happens, Vince has snatched his company from his daughter (and probably son-in-law) to sell to a murderous and oppressive regime. What… characterful.
Both of the company’s TV deals — SmackDown on Fox and Raw on Comcast’s US network — expire in just over a year and a half, and negotiations will start much earlier. Another key benefit for WWE, its massive streaming library and “premium live event” delivery model, is currently on Comcast’s Peacock service as part of a $1 billion+ rights deal. (Comcast was also seen as a frontrunner in buying the company given the amount of money it already spends on WWE content.)
How the negotiations for these media rights might change if the Saudis own the company now or will own it in the near future is another complete mystery. The Saudis’ burgeoning golf tour, LIV, was unable to find a US channel, in part because no channel wanted to be associated with the country’s history of human rights abuses. But this was a brand new franchise competing with the PGA Tour, and WWE is already an established moneymaker at the top of its industry. Even if some of this earning power could be jeopardized by a sale to the Kingdom.
It’s also hard to fathom if the rumors surrounding this sale are true, that Vince would ever be armed with a deal that didn’t make him the overlord of the TV product again. If the Saudi bid, if there is one, is not so much higher than any other company could have dreamed of, McMahon could have received several billions from a multitude of bidders. But some of those bidders may have insisted on keeping the current creative and production team, given Vince’s now-tarnished reputation as an alleged sex plot and WWE’s recent resurgence after his departure, both in terms of viewership and the overall feeling of fans and talent alike. Whether the product is actually that much better is in the eye of the beholder.
As for everything else, if indeed the Saudis are now the new bosses, who knows what will happen to a multitude of the company’s cast members. LGBTQ+ wrestlers are certainly a problem. The same goes for the list of women, some of whom have appeared on Saudi shows in the past, but full Saudi ownership might be another kettle of fish. And it could be an morally unjustifiable leap for other notable talents like Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and John Cena, who have already refused or weren’t allowed to perform on Saudi shows (like Sami due to his Syrian ethnicity).
No one should be surprised that one of the worst people on earth supposedly did one of the worst things possible. It’s just a level of dirt no one ever wants to think about. And yet here we are because the thing about people who are shitty like this is that they can always get shittier.