Vince McMahon smiles during the XFL Press Conference at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, California.Mandatory Credit: Tom Hauck /Allsport
Rumours are strife that Vince McMahon is selling WWE with Disney being the frontrunners to pick up the business
Vince McMahon could be out of the WWE game with reports suggesting that he is selling to ESPN.
Now, we have covered rumours of him having sold the business to ESPN in the past. However, there seems to be a lot of steam to this rumour.
WWE has been struggling for viewership and their finances haven’t always been the greatest in recent months either.
Of course, the coronavirus pandemic has affected live events. That does rake in decent money for the company, but it is interesting how news of Vince selling WWE keeps popping up.
The person who broke the news is former WWE star Zeb Colter. You might remember him from the days of Jack Swagger, and ‘We, the people’.
Just to be clear, this is still a rumour, but selling to ESPN or Fox, for that matter, puts up direct links with Disney (Disney owns ESPN and has a stake in Fox).
How Disney/ESPN/Fox can get this deal done is going to be difficult. While SmackDown is on Fox, Raw is on USA Today, and that is a problem that needs to be dealt with.
However, selling WWE to Disney/ESPN/Fox would possibly be one of the best moves made by McMahon.
One thing that has been a problem for WWE has been the product. Despite having a near-monopoly of the US market television scene for pro wrestling, the product seems to be stale and not all that interesting.
Yes, there are some interesting storylines and great moments, but WWE just hasn’t felt the same since the attitude era was turned into the PG era.
This did allow for younger fans to watch WWE. However, the story-telling has let down WWE for a while. Selling off the business to Disney would allow them to turn things around for WWE, and they do have experience of combat sports management too.
The UFC was a big fish already when they signed a deal with ESPN. But they have taken things to another level with their treatment of PPVs.
That is something that Disney/ESPN could do with WWE too. Additionally, Disney has a ton of properties in vand they could produce something totally different to what we see.
Also, it might be time for Vince to finally take a break from a company that he has been part of for more than 30 years.
He could still be on the board of directors or hold a high post with the rest of the McMahon family. And, he would be paid a ton of money from Disney if he does decide to sell-up. However, ESPN or any other company thinking of making a huge purchase in these times is very risky.
All sports outlets have been hit hard by the coronavirus, and spending a ton of money on WWE now would make little financial sense.
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However, this story of Vince selling WWE doesn’t seem to be going. And it will be interesting to see how things develop in the coming months.
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