Tag: Mark Shapiro

TKO’s Ari Emanuel, Mark Shapiro joining ownership group of notable NFL team

Posted on by Josh Nason

The NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders have two new minority shareholders as TKO’s Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro will soon join the team.

Reported by Variety on Tuesday, Emanuel (TKO CEO) and Shapiro (TKO president and COO) will “take individual, personal stakes” in the Raiders, making them minority owners, joining Dell Technologies’ founder Michael Dell and Blackstone global head of private equity Joseph Baratta. Two other minority investors have also increased their stakes. NFL legend Tom Brady is famously part of the ownership group, led by Mark Davis, son of the also legendary Al Davis.

Following the expected close of the deal later this month, Emanuel will own 1.4% of the Raiders while Shapiro will own .06%. At a total team valuation of $9.9 billion, Emanuel’s stake could be in the neighborhood of $139 million with Shapiro’s stake at an estimated $5.94 million.

Emanuel brought in $67.4 million last year from TKO while Shapiro took home $42.6 million. Shapiro is also a minority owner for the Los Angeles franchise in Major League Soccer with both men having extensive ties to the NFL. TKO’s On Location is the exclusive hospitality provider of the NFL.

The Raiders play at Allegiant Stadium, home of the last two WWE WrestleManias with TKO having a significant presence in the city with the UFC headquartered there. The team was established in 1960 in the American Football League before joining the NFL in 1970. Before moving to Las Vegas, they spent time in both Los Angeles and Oakland.

Mark Shapiro concedes WrestleMania in Las Vegas may have been a ‘mistake’

Posted on by Vincent Verhei

WWE ran WrestleMania in Las Vegas in both 2025 and 2026, and it didn’t work. The poor ticket sales this year even became part of the on-screen storylines. And TKO President Mark Shapiro has conceded that running the same city in back-to-back years was a bad idea.

Shapiro sat down with Brian Sozzi of Yahoo! Finance for an interview that was recorded before Mania but was released on Monday. At the time, he took responsibility for moving WrestleMania 42 from its originally scheduled site of New Orleans to Vegas.

“Maybe it’s a mistake I made,” Shapiro said, “because Vegas was so huge last year and such a winner for our fans and the product that I said to Nick Khan, ‘We’ve gotta go back to Vegas next year. We have to move New Orleans down the road and we got to come back to Vegas.’”

Still, Shapiro was not apologizing for the move.

“Absolutely no regrets on going back [to Vegas],” he said, “but the only reason you’re hearing some of the, ‘Hey it’s not what it was last year,’ it’s because we’re not benefiting from the first mover experience.”

TKO exec says ‘there will always be periodic fan dissatisfaction’ around WWE creative execution

Posted on by Josh Nason

During Wednesday’s investors call to discuss the robust TKO financials from the first quarter of the year, company head Mark Shapiro both acknowledged and went on the offensive around the narrative regarding creative around WWE WrestleMania 42.

Shapiro addressed that narrative and discussion during his portion of pre-recorded remarks on the call, followed by a question later in the Q&A portion where he went further into his thoughts.

In the pre-recorded portion, he said TKO has fielded investor questions “about WWE demand and the state of creative, driven by online commentary and the year-over-year WrestleMania ticket sales performance,” saying they weren’t concerned about the sales as it was “unrealistic” to expect WrestleMania 42 to surpass what 41 did.

“As it relates to the creative, there will always be periodic fan dissatisfaction around creative execution, commercial load, and celebrity usage. We listen to all the feedback. We do not turn a deaf ear, but these are not new criticisms,” he said.

During the call, he did not mention, nor was he asked, about how the ticket sales story was brought into WWE creative by Pat McAfee who was one of the celebrities grumbled about on social media.

Later on the the call when asked about creative again, Shapiro said, “We take any and all feedback, especially from our core fanbase….extremely serious, high priority. We listen, we learn. At the same time, balancing the fan experience…with the business of sports is never easy whether you’re talking ticket prices or commercial integration. It’s as old as time and crosses genres.”

At last month’s WrestleMania 42, fans watching at home were deluged with ads throughout both nights of the broadcast, amplified by frustrations with match time.

Shapiro made comparisons about rising prices at the movies, increasing ads on ESPN from one to two minutes on SportsCenter, NBA sponsorship patches, naming rights on the Dodgers Stadium field, and ad breaks for major sports events as things fans have complained about in the past and eventually, learned to live with.

“Change takes getting used to,” he said, adding that WWE is “truly new to commercial integration and sponsorship” and that “change will be more glaring for some as we inevitably commercially integrate.”

He said there will be trial and error with their approach and that they have experimented thus far, pushing boundaries with some events while pulling back from others. He reiterated that with WWE or UFC, “our product comes first” and that marketers want to reach their young, unique, hard to reach and super passionate fan base.

“Remember this: our audience is resilient. We don’t take it for granted. It doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want to do, absolutely not, quite the contrary. But, it is resilient. Currently, we are experiencing record attendance, record viewership, and record engagement,” he said.

Shapiro, someone who appears frequently at major events and is a public face for the company, earned $42.6 million in 2025, according to public records.

WWE & UFC revenue up big in TKO quarterly report, creative criticism addressed

Posted on by Josh Nason

WWE & UFC continue to perform for TKO in yet another big quarter for the combat sports and hospitality buoyed company.

TKO announced their financials Wednesday ahead of their 5 PM Eastern investors call, the notes of which can be found below.

TKO’s total revenues increased to $1.597 year over year (YOY), powered by WWE’s $475.7 million (up $84.2 YOY) and UFC’s $401.2 million (up $41.5 million). IMG/On Location was the biggest performer of them all, seeing an increase of $179.1 million to $655.4 million YOY thanks to the 2026 Winter Olympics.

*****

Specifically for WWE, the first quarter saw them take in $281.7 million in media rights, $123.5 million in live events and hospitality, $26.2 million in partnerships & marketing, and $44.3 million in consumer products & licensing.

The live events & hospitality segment saw the biggest increase YOY, followed by media rights. The driver was the Royal Rumble being held in Saudi Arabia.

Of note, legal costs increased to $23.2 million, up from $6.5 million in Q1 of 2025. The reason, among others, are “costs, net of insurance recoveries, related to certain litigation matters including antitrust lawsuits for UFC and stockholder litigation for WWE and Endeavor.”

Call Notes/Prepared Remarks

  • Mark Shapiro said they are “firmly moving ahead with scheduled events in Saudi Arabia and the region” for both WWE and UFC, “even and despite a challenging environment.” He confirmed Saudi Arabia’s PIF will not withdraw their financial commitment to TKO as they did with LIV Golf. He said they are planning on all six events after those shows with WWE/UFC/Zuffa boxing to take place in the region as planned.
  • Shapiro said they still plan on losing $30 million for the UFC White House card.
  • Shapiro said WWE Elimination Chamber had a “meaningful” YOY increase in its debut on ESPN, and was the second highest arena gate in company history.
  • Shapiro said they were “not concerned about ticket performance whatsoever” for WWE WrestleMania 42 and that it was “unrealistic” to expect growth there year over year. He said it was still one of the highest gates in WWE history and outperformed anywhere else they could have held it.
  • He followed that up by addressing criticism of WWE creative. He defended it, saying they listen to all feedback but that what they have been hearing is “not new criticism” and there there will always be “periodic dissatisfaction” with creative.

Q&A

Shapiro was asked during the call about the fan criticism about WWE and he re-iterated some of the points he made on the recorded call, saying listening to any and all feedback is “high priority” for them and while they listen and learn, “balancing the fan experience with the business of sports is never easy,” comparing it with complaints about Hollywood, movies, and ticket prices.

He said change takes getting used to and that fans used to complain about NBA sponsor patches and that even the L.A. Dodgers added a rights partner on the field at Dodgers Stadium. He also mentioned the critics for when ads were introduced in key times for the NCAA Final Four, NFL games, etc.

He said there is “no magic formula and no magic serum” to adding the commercial element into WWE’s presentation and that it’s a trial and error over time and that they have pushed boundaries for events, leaning into some more than others.

“Most important, our product comes first,” he said, noting that fans are unique, super passionate and how marketers want access to their IP. They are working to do that while maintaining a balance and that “revenue allows us to be more creative with our product and our superstars.”

He added that, “Our audience is resilient. We can’t take them for granted. Currently, we have record attendance, record viewers, and record engagement,” he said.

He was later asked about similar critiques about UFC fight cards which he replied, “Bottom line, we don’t buy it.” He put over the last numbered event, the amount of young fighters making their way up the ranks, and that with any sport, there are natural ebbs and flows with star power, comparing it to a time in the NBA when fans had similar complaints.

Asked about the success of one off events in the MMA space and competition, TKO CFO Andrew Schleimer said they made an eight figure investment in doubling fighter bonuses and that fighter compensation continues to grow as “we would never turn a blind eye to our most meaningful investment.” Shapiro that that everything is competition in combat sports with other events, but didn’t seem to have any concerns about those competitors.

Mark Shapiro confirms WWE’s use of AI, ‘Nick Khan & Triple H are using AI for storylines’

Posted on by Josh Nason

After our Dave Meltzer reported last October about a new hire brought into usher WWE’s growing use of AI in creative, TKO president Mark Shapiro confirmed the news in Monday’s company town hall meeting.

The latest news comes courtesy of Post Wrestling who obtained audio from the town hall. In their reporting, they gave the following quote from Shapiro who said using AI in WWE is “a major priority” for both efficiency and productivity.

“Nick Khan and Triple H are using AI for storylines with the WWE,” Shapiro said. “What’s resonating? What superstars are resonating? In what pockets of the country are they resonating? That helps us with, obviously, our content, our editorial, our creative, our mapping, our touring, and of course, maximizing revenue and getting our product out to the fans most in need of it.”

It’s unknown specifically how they are using it or with what partner. Meta appears the likely company due to their existing partnership with the UFC, but that is unconfirmed.

TKO chief financial officer Andrew Schleimer also spoke at the meeting and seemed to contradict Shapiro’s comments, saying they have only run “tests and pilots” and are in the early days.

From Post:

“He cited the use of AI for data and analytics on WWE and UFC consumers, as well as minor uses to enhance broadcasts.”

TKO exec felt Vince McMahon wasn’t necessary post-WWE & UFC merger, contradicts SEC statement

Posted on by Josh Nason

Newly released testimony from a deposition in the WWE shareholders lawsuit has revealed that TKO president Mark Shapiro didn’t feel that keeping Vince McMahon around as part of the UFC/WWE merger was necessary “especially with all the baggage.”

The issue is that contradicts statements made in filings with the SEC that illustrated why it was felt McMahon needed to earn the compensation package and role he received to be part of the deal.

First reported by Post Wrestling’s Brandon Thurston, Shapiro was asked in his deposition if he personally didn’t view McMahon “being in the executive chair role as a necessary condition for the future success of the combined company.”

Shapiro answered, “Correct, especially with all the baggage.”

He was asked if McMahon remaining on board as TKO executive chairman was a goal of McMahon’s and not of what would become TKO leadership.

“Wasn’t a goal of ours, no, no, it was not,” he answered.

With the September 2023 merger of UFC and WWE that created TKO, McMahon received his lifetime role as TKO executive chairman, Board nomination rights, and veto power over certain transactions in addition to six extra percentage points of the combined company, worth roughly $1 billion in value.

The testimony also showed McMahon wanted to initially be TKO CEO, but that did not happen.

The lawsuit claims that McMahon’s drive to merge WWE with UFC was predetermined while other better offers were on the table because he wanted a role within it. He stepped down from his TKO position when the Janel Grant lawsuit first came to light in January 2024, but remains the company’s largest single person stockholder.

In an interview on CNBC that famously featured Emanuel next to a mustachioed McMahon, Emanuel joked he would have bodyslammed the WWE head if he didn’t come along for the ride. McMahon was asked if he would have walked away from WWE if that were the terms of any deal to which said he would have.

From Thurston’s report:

“The (SEC) filing further stated that McMahon “had not, and was not, requesting or proposing such rights.” According to WWE’s narrative, guaranteeing McMahon’s continued role was key to Endeavor agreeing to raise WWE’s split of the combined company from 43% to 49%.”

TKO compensation for Nick Khan, Ari Emanuel & Mark Shapiro revealed in SEC statement

Posted on by Josh Nason

TKO’s annual proxy statement was released on Thursday with the 2025 compensation for key executives revealed.

WWE president Nick Khan brought home $24.3 million for 2025 based on $2 million of base salary, $11 million in stock awards and more than $10 million in bonuses.

Khan also has taken on the role of Zuffa Boxing promoter, an effort TKO has partnered with Sela, a Saudi Arabian entertainment conglomerate owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF). $3.7 million of that bonus was attributed to those efforts.

TKO president Mark Shapiro, someone who appears frequently at major events and is a public face for the company, earned $42.6 million for the year.

TKO CEO Ari Emanuel, credited with bringing in The Rock for last February’s infamous WWE Elimination Chamber appearance in addition to Pat McAfee’s inclusion in the Cody Rhodes/Randy Orton WrestleMania 42 angle, earned $67.4 million.

Vince McMahon is still listed as the biggest individual Class A stockholder with 6,442,325 shares, worth roughly $1.2 billion in current day value, but does not draw any TKO salary.

TKO exec on WWE brand strategy: ‘You’re going to win some folks over & chase some folks away’

Posted on by Josh Nason

In a clip shared Monday from a college appearance last week, TKO head Mark Shapiro made some headlines with comments about WWE’s use of celebrities, a now infamous quote about “creative control” and an admission that their strategy might chase soem fans away.

During an appearance at the University of Alabama (heard below), Shapiro was asked about whether TKO has creative control over decisions like bringing in celebrities like Pat McAfee, Jelly Roll and iShowSpeed into the WWE world amid online complaints that WWE is more focused on moments and money making than anything else.

Shapiro said, “It has complete control. We’re responsible: good or bad, fact or fiction.”

While the immediate reaction has been that TKO is instructing Paul Levesque in what to do to with creative, it’s unclear if that is what Shapiro was trying to say or if “it” was more in the vein of traditional corporate synergy on decision-making vs. no input.

Shapiro did chalk criticism up to the fact that TKO is a public company now and that before Vince McMahon went public with WWE, “they didn’t put out financial results” and “no one knew it was successful,” noting that the brand with strong with a legion of fans but that was all people knew.

“Now, everything’s kind of out there,” he said, putting over WWE’s growth in every area and crediting their media strategy of Netflix, ESPN, USA and The CW.

He then said about stars, “I don’t think that part is true, but if it was, good” before talking about how The Rock is the biggest star on the planet. It’s unclear from the five minute clip what he was referring to.

He did say that, “Having Hollywood tie-ins and celebrities….that’s not new. It’s juston a larger stage,” mentioning the names above plus Mark Wahlberg and Tyrese Haliburton.

He acknowledged that “you can make some enemies really quickly” when content is spread across multiple platforms.

“We’re spending a lot more money to market the brand and the content. When you do that, you’re going to win some folks over and chase some folks away,” he said, illustrating how it’s not just WWE and citing how he read a story about New York Yankees fans would have to spend $1000 this season over ten digital platforms if they wanted to watch every game.

TKO exec says ESPN Unlimited price point is ‘somewhat prohibitive’ for WWE fans

Posted on by Josh Nason

TKO head Mark Shapiro is very excited about the day when ESPN Unlimited is fully authenticated for subscribers of all major cable & streaming TV providers, giving them free access to WWE premium live events.

Shapiro spoke Monday at the annual Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference where he was asked about the ESPN/WWE relationship following their PLE shift last September and how it might impact both reach and popularity.

He said “it definitely impacts us” and noted they were asked all the same questions about accessibility when WWE moved to Peacock years ago.

“(Moving to Peacock) was a total success. We play the long game with WWE and we’re doing the same with ESPN,” he said.

He then put over the ESPN Unlimited platform, calling it a “phenomenal package if you’re a sports fan” and added that “things will immediately get better” for WWE when Comcast, YouTube and Dish all allow their subscribers to authenticate and get the service for free. (Comcast Xfinity actually launched that capability last weekend while it might be until the fall for YouTube.)

“That is (the $29.99 monthly cost without authenticating), I believe, is somewhat prohibitive, especially in today’s economy and the struggles that certainly middle income and low income earners are having with affordability. They have to get those deals done. Until they do, that will affect our audience,” he said, adding they are excited about everything getting done.

Shapiro said that for this past weekend’s Elimination Chamber, they saw “a significant increase in audience” from last September’s Wrestlepalooza and “are already making strides.” He admitted they aren’t where they were a year ago with Netflix or Peacock, but he was “super encouraged” by the numbers WWE president Nick Khan was sending him every hour this past weekend.

The future of WWE NXT PLEs on Peacock did not come up.

What did come up with the impending possibility of Paramount Skydance acquiring WBD which Shapiro said is “only good for us.” He specifically mentioned TNT and HBO being synonymous with sports, something he brought up before, suggesting that TNT might make a good home for UFC events if a deal was to go through.

Wrestling Weekly: WrestleMania ticket woes, AEW’s big weekend down under

Posted on by Victor Sosa

TKO is apparently concerned about ticket sales for WrestleMania 42 and on the new Wrestling Weekly, Les Thatcher and Vic Sosa talk about what should be the real concern which is more than just ticket prices.

We’ll also look at this past week’s AEW Dynamite and look ahead to what should be a tremendous Grand Slam Australia show.

Thanks for listening and have a great weekend~!

Click here to listen (sub needed)

TKO exec says WWE & UFC are each $20 billion properties

Posted on by Josh Nason

TKO head Mark Shapiro isn’t shy about the success of both WWE and UFC.

During a Super Bowl week appearance on The Pat McAfee Show Friday, he and TKO executive chairman Ari Emanuel talked about TKO business, boxing, and personal stories.

At one point, Shapiro said that both WWE and UFC were ‘$20 billion properties…each” which led to Emanuel intimating in a joking way that he wasn’t supposed to say that followed by Shapiro saying “it’s all public info.”

As of Friday at 2 pm Eastern, TKO’s listed market cap is just over $41 billion which includes WWE, UFC, Professional Bull Riders, OnDemand, and IMG. The company was officially formed in September 2023 with the merger of WWE and UFC.

TKO has more than doubled in value since September 2023 and is trading at nearly $211 per share as of this writing. They will announce their Q4 and full 2025 financials in late-February.

New documents show Endeavor execs anticipated Vince McMahon’s 2023 return & selling to them

Posted on by Josh Nason

Newly revealed documents and text messages revealed that a key executive that now heads up TKO was confident about Vince McMahon’s return to WWE in 2023 and that he would sell the company to Endeavor — a prediction that turned out to be accurate.

The report comes courtesy of Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston in association with Post Wrestling who obtained the documents and revealed the information Monday, including images of text messages from newly disclosed records as part of the current WWE shareholder lawsuit.

The suit claims that McMahon was in violation of his fiduciary duties by arranging for WWE to merge with UFC to create TKO, a move done to keep him in power rather than get the best deal for WWE shareholders.

One of the key messages is from Mark Shapiro, who heads up TKO and was also a higher-up at Endeavor, sent to current TKO chief financial officer Andrew Schleimer and then-Endeavor CFO Jason Lublin.

“Nick and Stephanie are going to take over the WWE for the next nine months. Vince [will] be back with a new board or he will take the company private or he will sell it/coming to us. The race is on. The courtship is on,” Shapiro wrote.

“Nick” is Nick Khan and “Stephanie” is Stephanie McMahon. The text was sent on July 22, 2002 — the same day Vince McMahon announced his “retirement.” It’s unclear why Shapiro was so confident, or accurate, with his assessment.

Vince McMahon returned less than six months later in January 2023, placing himself back on the WWE Board with the intent to sell the company. The deal with Endeavor then came together three months later.

**********

Thurston noted that the documents reveal that Vince McMahon and Endeavor head/agent Ari Emanuel were communicating during the timeframe in which he stepped down and then returned, arranging for an August 2022 dinner with Emanuel, Stephanie McMahon and Khan. It was noted there is nothing illegal about such a meeting given McMahon’s stature as that time as WWE’s primary shareholder.

There was also an exchange that same month with Emanuel offering backstage passes to a Bill Burr comedy show at Boston’s Fenway Park. While some of the exchange, in addition to an unknown download link and attachments, is redacted, one line from Emanuel is not: “I will be your greatest partner.”

It’s unclear if Emanuel was alluding to the impending deal.

There was also an August 2022 exchange where Emanuel offered to fly from Paris to Italy to meet McMahon after the now-former TKO chairman McMahon met with a senior banker who served as WWE’s financial advisor during the sale process. That same banker had worked with Endeavor previously as well as McMahon as part of his 2020 XFL re-launch.

Executives from Liberty Media, a group who was also interested in WWE, sent internal emails after the April 2023 merger announcement, saying they felt the deal was “pre-wired” and already arranged before the formal bid process kicked off.

**********

One of the exchanges from the extensive article showed McMahon texted with Khan about creative in February 2023, asking if Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes were aware of “new creative” for WrestleMania that year and the year after, noting he had asked both Paul Levesque and Bruce Prichard.

Khan replied “Langis” to which McMahon didn’t have any idea what he meant. Khan told him to read the word backward which is assumed to be Signal, the encrypted messaging app.

From Thurston:

“That interaction, regarding “new creative,” runs counter to Khan’s statement a month later on CNBC that McMahon wasn’t involved in the creative process. The public record doesn’t show more about what “new creative” McMahon was referring to or whether he had any influence in Roman Reigns’ win over Cody Rhodes in the main event of that year’s WrestleMania, an outcome that surprised many fans.”

The shareholder lawsuit is set to go to trial in June 2026 with the discovery phase nearing an end with financial restitution possible if the plaintiffs win the case.

TKO exec gives update on WWE archives & NXT PLE availability, Paramount/WBD possibilities

Posted on by Josh Nason

There is now an update on the future availability of archived WWE content in addition to WWE NXT premium live events.

During an appearance at the UBS Global Media & Communications Conference (full audio below), TKO head Mark Shapiro was asked about those two entities and said regarding the archives, they are working on a non-exclusive deal and expect to have something to announce in the first quarter of 2026. The deal with Peacock to carry most WWE archive content expires at year’s end.

Regarding NXT PLEs, they haven’t gone to market yet but Shapiro said there is “no rush” to do so as they want to be both “deliberate and thoughtful” about the process. The deal with Peacock to carry NXT PLEs expires in March 2026.

**********

Shapiro said he is “thrilled that the industrial logic” of bringing two IP properties like WWE and UFC together has been “validated,” adding they are a year ahead of schedule on their pro forma (a forward-looking financial document that forecasts future performance based on certain assumptions).

He put over WWE as still having a “monster runway” and reiterated how revenue streams that weren’t previously tapped into, especially on the partnership side, are paying off. He strongly complimented Nick Khan, Paul Levesque, their teams and their media partners and that the company “couldn’t be better primed” for more success ahead.

As part of that, he is confident ESPN head Jimmy Pitaro will get the process “moving fast” of greenlighting various cable providers to sync with ESPN, giving their subscribers free access to ESPN’s new streaming service as part of their cable subscription.

He also credited Disney with a successful Wrestlepalooza launch, saying the company sent them a ten-page document on their plan to promote WWE on ESPN and that both sides “couldn’t have been happier. No notes.”

**********

There was a lot of talk about UFC launching on Paramount and how they feel UFC is “clearly a beneficiary” of how much Paramount wants the relationship to work, saying they are “bold, dynamic, going to make moves and give us broad reach.”

He also hinted at a potential future, saying, “If Paramount can get WBD, I like a world where we could potentially live on HBO or TNT,” noting they are sports destinations fans are used to.

On the White House show front, they are still trying to figure out what they can and can’t do, but promised the show “will be a spectacle. If you thought The Sphere was a spectacle, this will be a spectacle on steroids.” He said Dana White and Hunter Campbell are putting together a “sensational fight card” and that there will be no ticket sales.

**********

He said sponsorships/partnerships continue to be strong and they are close on another major deal, similar to the ones they have with DoorDash and Polymarket and in a category he has always wanted to be in, expecting it to close by year’s end.

He said there are “no signs of weakness across the board” when it comes to live events and that they continue to be “taking advantage of the experience economy.” He complimented White on his ability to “curate” influencers on social media which has maximized their opportunities, awareness and engagement across YouTube and TikTok.

He said they have increased their “fan TAM” (total addressable market) due to people sampling UFC, and they are seeing the results in ticket sales, margins and their hospitality business due to fans wanting a one of a kind experience.

Shapiro said they are continuing to get increased calls from interested parties in bringing WWE or UFC to their city and are willing to work with them on subsidies or financial incenvtives for them to do so.

He also reiterated they are “not hunting for new properties” at the moment.

Click here to listen

TKO head thinks WWE needs to be ‘moving past’ Vince McMahon-created PLEs

Posted on by Josh Nason

TKO president and chief operating officer Mark Shapiro has never been shy about pointing out perceived Vince McMahon’s business flaws from his ticketing strategy to his lack of in-arena and in-ring advertising.

In a recent interview with sports media reporter Andrew Marchand, he also made it clear he wants to seemingly wants to move past some of McMahon’s past pay-per-view creations.

Shapiro was talking about the work ethics of WWE president Nick Khan and creative head Paul “Triple H” Levesque and how they are always open to new ideas and ready to “take on a new shot, a new risk, a new opportunity” which includes new events like Wrestlepalooza.

“Right now, a lot of our PLEs were really created by Vince McMahon. We need to get in the business of taking that torch and moving past that. Nick (Khan) and Triple H created Wrestlepalooza, which is the launch event for our new ESPN deal which did incredibly well and may turn into a super franchise. Not to mention from a merch standpoint, I don’t need to tell you, securing the IP rights and then selling merch out at Wrestlepalooza. Let’s just say it was a real winner,” he said.

Shapiro didn’t go into why he feels that way or if that is a corporate directive to Khan. He also made news for the interview as he called Fox “a little lazy” in how they approached selling UFC when they held TV rights.

In the TKO era, WWE has yet to abandon long-standing event names like WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, Money in the Bank or Elimination Chamber — all of which were created in the McMahon era. Even the names of their trademark TV shows haven’t changed.

TKO’s Mark Shapiro on athlete pay: We’ll share ‘as much as makes sense with the stars’ of WWE & UFC

Posted on by Josh Nason

Of all the things that came up during a 35-minute appearance at a technology conference Wednesday, getting asked about fighter and wrestler pay likely wasn’t at the top of TKO COO Mark Shapiro’s list.

That did happen, however, as during the annual Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference, Shapiro (seen above) was asked about his take on fighter and wrestler pay as relates to the level of reinvestment into the company and how investors should take that into account.

Shapiro said they already run “a pretty lean cost structure” that fighter and wrestler pay is part of, but they will “continue to do right by our fighters and our (WWE) superstars.”

“The cream of the crop will get paid the premium dollars,” he said, adding that when they sign big rights deals like UFC’s with Paramount and WWE’s with ESPN, they reinvest in the product. He used UFC doing “of the night” bonuses when they signed with ESPN as an example of that, perhaps not realizing UFC bonuses began long before the ESPN deal.

“We’re going to share as much as makes sense with the stars of both leagues. We will be very competitive…we are very competitive. We pay more than any other competitor in the combat sports space. We know why we’re here and it’s a team effort,” he said.

Citing the amount of events TKO runs in a year, Shapiro said, “We have to pay for performance in terms of our people and the same goes for our fighters and (WWE) superstars.”

He said there are cases where Conor McGregor and Jon Jones get paid more, but they “deliver more in return. It’s a scale and a formula, and we’re very transparent about it with our fighters and (WWE) superstars.”

Shapiro also talked about how ticket prices remain an area of opportunity for WWE as Vince McMahon priced tickets for families, and that Wrestlepalooza is seen by TKO as a potential “Big Four” PLE of the year for WWE.

Click here to listen