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i got $5 on it

oh yeah anything men likes must be because we are dumb-

like all those incredibly stupid men who must be watching 'Dancing Moms' , 'Keeping up with Kim K' and 'Real Housewives of...'

LOL I mean a huge chunk of what we watch on TV is fake and yet people always want to pick on wrestling.

No one has Vince McMahon's drive to make WWE the success it was. The company will die with him. Sadly, the glory days are over/have been over for sometime.

Besides, the biggest warning sign that the WWE isn't worth $9 billion is the fact that he wants to sell it.

Current Market Cap: $6.5B

So its a 38% premium. Thats on the extreme edge of valuation for taking it private. I suspect it may go for a nice premium but that seems a little much to ask, especially with the recent stock increase and a buyout already being factored in.

I think that’s 2 b more than what Lucas sold Star Wars for

10 buckaroos!

He's getting old and his kids are not good at running it.

I can throw in a $20

what a piece of shit

I think Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4b.

Which also included Indiana Jones.

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WWE is more profitable now than at any point in its history.

He likely wants to sell it because it seems he doesn't want to leave it to his kids anymore.

Shane was fired a couple years ago, and Stephanie was kicked out this past year.

Shane also sold all his stocks years ago.

>WWE is more profitable now than at any point in its history.

I've seen the metrics, the broadcast rights are big. But, that doesn't mean the wrestlers are as exciting as they used to be.

When McMahon's out, whoever buys it, most likely a corporation, we're going to see that pointed arrow pointing downward.

That's my prediction, not my wish.

Ah 7 was sticking out at me for some reason

>that doesn't mean the wrestlers are as exciting as they used to be.

Sounds like you haven't watched wrestling in 20 years.

Qatar/SA will buy

I haven't.

The Rock and Austin was my last. Since then, everyone I know who watched wrestling slowly gave it up, telling me what I said, "The new guys just aren't as exciting as the old guys."

I don't want wrestling to fail; I don't gain anything from it. Vince had the passion and vision to make it what it was and is today. Whoever comes after will only see numbers, and that'll kill a show.

So you are 20 years out of touch on a product, have no idea about the current state of the industry, but you still feel qualified to offer an opinion?

The fact is that wrestling shows are usually in the top five for whatever night they are on, be it cable or broadcast.

Grab your 40, let's get keyed

Remember my prediction, and after Vince is through, when the WWE is making a slow descent into oblivion, look me up.

Although it's not a sport it has a lot of similarities. This would be double the price of the biggest sale of any sporting side. Crazy money.

But you're not buying a team, you're buying an entire sport.

With Comcast not being interested and Disney looking to offload ESPN, might be SA wether people like it nor not. At this point rooting for Endeavor they bought UFC and kept Dana White if they buy WWE they’ll more then likely not meddle and keep team there.

I've got tree fiddy

Your buying the strongest brand in a "sport" but you can't buy the concept of wrestling. I guess it's like buying a league in a sport rather than a side or entire sport. Either way it's a lot.

It's dominant enough that it may as well be the entire sport, like UFC.

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Curious who would be willing to buy it, I assume Comcast or Saudi

The entire history of the sport comes with the sale. WWE own pretty much all previous wrestling entities video libraries. Vince bought uo everyone over the year. It's basically everything other then AEW.

Saudi definitely they are buying the sports industry

WWE product arguably improved leaps and bounds during his recent exit. HHH behind the creative team was kicking ass. Vince is out of touch with what the fans want now.

the only correct reply

I think Microsoft bought Bethesda for 7 billion

Seriously. I don't watch wrestling, but what's basically a sports themed live soap opera stunt show is a weird thing to pick apart.

Let people have fun.

Would you accept one Twitter for it? Asking for a fiend.

To be fair, I think they got an extreme deal on Star Wars. They made back the money in merch before the first movie was out, or something insane like that.

Theres another pro-wrestling company that has a primetime slot on cable during the week. Pro-wrestling in general does surprisingly well for such a niche product.

Most people have only heard of WWE.

Saudis will pay it.

In cash and stock. Lucas has made over $10 billion from the deal.

If americans created anime, it'd be the wwe

Yeah it was a steal! But I think the state of Star Wars back then was a burden for Lucas, who knew something bigger than Clone Wars had to be done in the next decade and he just wasn’t able to endure another trilogy (and seeing how difficult it seems to „just“ make a good trilogy and the hate that follows a bod one, I can see what his difficulties were). And he didn’t need to share with anyone, how many billions does one guy need in the latter half of his life?

It’s not worth that much and no one will pay it.

It's worth double.

Not if you watch it. I'd be amazed if anyone that currently watches wrestling even at the most casual level that doesn't know about AEW. Even in my rual UK town I can find AEW merch right next to the WWE stuff.

$3.50 at most

A person of culture, I see

None. The answer is none.

No the steroid and baby oil budget is too high for that valuation.

there was a time where i believe there could've been a future where that might've been possible

wrestling was ABSURDLY big in the attitude area, like people in different countries and friends would talk about shit, it was starting to get eveyrwhere on a crazy level

i don't know if the pg13 era or whatever fucked it up or just the writers got bad but i feel like a lot of people who knew wrestling back then can probably attest it was insanely popular

Was that a Jordan Peele’s “US” reference?!?

You can wish in one hand, and crap in the other, and see which one gets filled first.

Ah yes. The death of wwe

Link

They just bid 4b for manchester fucking united. This fake low tier entertainment for rednecks aint worth 9b lmaoo

Not a link to the site but.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AEWOfficial/comments/qmqqu7/aew_figures_in_home_bargains_uk/

It's an old post but I did see them this year as well.

Something being in home bargains is practically confirmation that no one cares about it.

I think he will get it

2.5B seems fine

Well they sell WWE stuff right along side.

I come from the era of The Ultimate Warrior. Haven't watched it since.

Isn't there a wrestling brand where they actually do insane flips and acrobatic style moves much more often?

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Even trade with Dan Snyder for the Washington Commanders.

Anyone else think 'WWE' sucks as a company name/initials? It's so weak. I know they lost the rights to WWF and it's been 20 years lol.

Lucha libre style my man. New Japan does a lot of that style. Or transport yourself back to late 90s wcw cruiserwelt matches. Those were the days. The hurricanrana is one of my favorite moves. So graceful.

Best of luck with that Vinnie, maybe they'll throw in another billion for the World Bodybuilding Federation 🤣

reddit has a real issue with man hating and hating on things we love

WWE worth more than man U and you are malding, love it

Until a Saudi buys it for bragging rights

There is AEW, NJPW and others.

I grew up in the 90s/2000s watching a ton of wrestling, still see random clips of it now and I have no idea what AEW is. Is that the league Pat Mcafee fought in for the memes? Pretty sure that was still the WWE though.

Manchester United Market Cap: $4.3B with $1B of debt

Multiple offers of $6B+

Rare assets are going for a premium these days

No one cares about the WWE anymore

And the company that made Candy Crush was bought for just under $6 billion, so I've definitely accepted the fact that I don't know how any of this works.

So Elon Musk will make an offer, he can’t resist overpaying for companies.

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>Lucha libre style

Man, I'm so out of the loop with this. Decades my dude, lol.

If you were going to show someone new to a great intro video of this style/new japan (i think thats the brand? lol), toss me the link you would use.

Even though I don't watch modern wrestling, i fully get how athletic those guys are. I remember seeing a match a long time ago and I was like, Holy shit wrestling has gone to the next damn level apparently. It was not WWE (almost typed WWF, thats how long ago it is for me.....) type stuff. But i never looked into it much, so I have no idea. If you could give me a good starting window video, i'd appreciate it. I think it might awake the nostalgia in me.

Yeah but Manchester United is a world wide known brand in the highest level of the world's most popular sport and it's a great purchase for sports washing a company/country.

WWE is just not on the same level.

tree fiddy is best I can do

Yeah, I think he's Disney's second largest shareholder after Steve Jobs' widow.

$9 billion is Vince's asking price but if you beat him in a steel cage match he will be forced to accept a lower offer.

Are you kidding? WWE has similar, if not greater, reach and popularity in the world versus Man Utd. And this coming from a Brit who has supported the club ever since I was a kid.

And you are saying WWE isn't known worldwide? WWE still manages like 2-3mill viewers despite running year around unlike other sports and that's just US who knows what are its international numbers.

I think that at that time there was a mystery around the wrestlers and we almost never saw them out of character, as it was the era of no Internet, so all those wrestlers felt larger than life, something out of a comic book. And many kids actually believed thst Undertaker was resurrected and feared him. Such was the mystery engulfing those wrestlers. Then came social media, and wrestlers started being accessable 24*7 instead of weekly nights, they showed their human side and things kind of dwindled down.

And video game they have decided to spend 37.8 billion this year on buying video game companies

Hey now, they were the WWWF for a while there!

Compared to the Premier League? Yes absolutely.

3million viewers is fuck all. Match of The Day gets 20+ million viewers in the UK alone.

1.5billion people watched the world cup

3.2Billion people watched at least some of the Premier League in the 2019-2020 season.

WWE isn't even close.

3.2Billion people watched at least some of the premier league in 2019/2020.

Of those the vast majority are going to know a team that has been in the top 5 for 26 of the 30 years its been running and won it 13 times.

And wrestling fans aren't exactly advertisers most sought after targets. The poor and the stupid, mostly.

That was 11 years ago, it would go for much more if it were to happen today.

I wouldn't go that far, even if the one I replied to thinks 3,000,000 is a bigger number than 3,000,000,000.

They are apparently all very upset that the average person doesn't give a fuck about wrestling though.

People must understand this every time. Lucas didn’t get $4 billion in cash, he got $4 billion in Disney Stock. It only has gone up in value but also gave him stake at Disney.

I'll be nice and round up to 10 billion.

It’s a massive and illogical leap to go from 3.2bn people watched at least some of the Premier League (so certainly not even a whole game and no guarantee it was a Man Utd game at that), and then deduce from that the majority of those people know about Man Utd, let alone support it financially (through ticket or merchandise purchases etc), which is what accrues such big value to these brands.

Moreover, albeit according to WWE themselves, their programming reaches over 1.2bn people a year worldwide.

> According to WWE's own statistics, its programming reaches over 1.2 billion homes globally in over 28 languages.

Disney bought both Star Wars and Marvel combined for roughly this… Unless WWE has the patent on some cancer drug, this is a wild overvaluation.

The game pulled in 1-1.2 billion annual revenues. 6 billion is super reasonable considering the game likely has high margins.

Yeah but all of that sale is assets & IPs.

WWE is assets, IPs, live broadcast, ticketing & a fan culture that still engages in pay-per-view.

Honestly, for the right leader with the right strategy, WWE is a Lucasfilm level asset with millions in ticket sales in any given week, with millions in residuals. From a pure revenue/cash flow perspective, WWE is one helluva business. It has an almost guaranteed weekly, monthly & annual cash flow regardless of whether or not the current storylines stick. Much easier for WWE to recover quickly from a Solo- or ROS-situation with no brand damage than for Star Wars to be exiled to TV with no box office revenue for 5 years while they figure out what to do with it.

>that still engages in pay-per-view.

WWE hasn't done proper PPVs in ages. That strategy went away with the WWE Network, and they are no longer even called pay-per-views, they are now officially called premium live events.

Buying Lucasfilm also included Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound, so there were still tangible money generating assets included completely outside of the Star Wars brand.

If Disney didn't buy it back then and pump loads of marketing into the brand and create new content, why would it be worth more now, aside from inflationary reasons, that is.

Saudi's carry almost 9 billion in their pockets.

I've met plenty of poor and down right stupid pitch fans. More so than the redneck demographics that watch wrasslin. Just because it's popular doesn't mean the fans aren't just as stupid or more so.

In England EPL fans tend to encompass the demographic as a whole, but EPL fans in USA, CA, Japan, SK, etc skew middle class or higher. It's a very valuable world-wide product, and WWE isn't close to it.

McMahon is looking to take that money to pivot back into the XFL, but this time it'll be an all-steroid league

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Oof, dude, no. You just angered the yankees thinking their sports actually compare to something like football.

Are you saying WWE is the same as the actual sport of wrestling?

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You made two comments making absolutely no argument or sense, so I'm gonna guess you're just salty lol

So is wrasslin, just not to you, just like I haven't watched a futbol match since the US women's team started protesting after losing to a team of teenagers. Same with baseball. Sports in general are beginning to experience a plateau with more and more becoming a social protest venue. It's really sad but sports is just a soap opera now that is mostly scripted.

And people in hell want ice water.

Well that was 11 years ago so it would probably have another movie or two which would probably increase its value. It probably would actually be going for about 9 billion today and I say that haven't done no actual math and not standing behind my evaluation

Can’t you just pretend to pay him the money? Isn’t that how wrestling works?

In America. Japanese and Mexican wrestling are huge

It’s actually worth dramatically more now than it was in the Attitude Era. WWE has a global reach now that it didn’t have back then and has diversified a lot. Metrics like ratings are down, but WWE as a company is much stronger

Well, until the court makes him and he’s stuck at sticker price.

This is a better investment than what Elon spent to kill twitter

I honestly can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic and writing stuff a typical American MAGA idiot might believe or if you’re just being yourself. If it’s the former that’s a spot on impression. And if it’s the latter you’re inadvertently supporting dpjg’s argument.

The WWE is much better known than Manchester in the world’s largest economy, which probably counts for something

Nah the “sport” of wrestling is a joke, but it’s far more popular (and therefore profitable) than association football in the US, which is the world’s largest economy.

I don’t think anybody is questioning that it has made that much, as much as they are trying to question how the hell something so simple and useless can be worth so much money

Because an investment is judged by how quickly someone can get a return on their investment. Candy crush made 1.2 billion this year alone and is still growing. It turned out to be a great investment as they investment has paid back well over 6 billion.

I could sell a literal piece of shit but if ppl are willing to pay $100 for it, then thats how much its worth.

Nah I get it, I just can’t put myself in the minds of the people who contributed in 2022 to making candy crush 1.2 billion dollars.

It lost my interest after about a day or two over a decade ago. It’s wild that people are still shelling this ridiculous amount of cash out to a game that is basically identical to a multitude of free alternatives

Or Elon Musk, backed by the Saudis.

Of course, but we're talking worldwide. Not in the US.

100% this. HHH has made the product much more exciting than it had been.

What a stupid comparison

They don't buy anything for bragging rights. This is all about diversifying the kingdom's revenue, so that in 100 years they aren't left broke.

They're basically acquiring anything that has longterm value.

messin' with that indo weed

It's also a way for them to launder their reputation in the rest of the world. It's why you see so many Saudi and Russian billionaires buying teams or funding leagues overseas overseas.

Not saying McMahon will get it but a ~30% premium is about right for buyouts.

It's sweat opera.

No chance… no chance in hell.

I have a feeling he overvalued it so only the Saudis are realistically interested. They’d want to keep him on, too. Saudis would think $9b is a bargain.

I believe Steve's widow cashed put. Unfortunately I think Murdoch is now up there due to the fox sale

This might not sound like a huge deal, but one of the big consistent things Vince McMahon has done over the years is buying up the tape libraries of just about any rival or defunct wrestling promotion you can imagine. At least US ones. So you aren't just getting the rights to WWE's massive well of their own content, it's basically buying the rights to decades of wrestling history to boot.

That plus the fact they have a lot of investment in things like their own film production arm, stuff like that...even if Star Wars is more popular than WWE today that doesn't always translate to being worth more as a whole bundle.

People vastly underestimate how much WWE's popularity has reached out worldwide.

It's bordering on transcending being a banner American wrestling show. Getting into territory like say, Cirque du Soliei or something. It doesn't matter that much anymore if it's a niche thing back home, they can go just about anywhere in the world and draw humongous crowds just because it's an attraction in and of itself.

Is this the guy that makes all the performers be independent contractors so they don’t get health care?

I'm a huge wrestling fan, and I always find that, if people happen to come over when wrestling is on, they get into it. It's a lot of fun if you don't pay attention to the haters

I'm sure you're only into the most high brow of entertainment

Saudi Arabia 100% will. They want anything that has longevity to keep making them money, and WWE has got that

AEW

I don't think anyone is going to buy for that price, except for maybe the Saudi's.

$6B-$7B seems more realistic.

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Iron Sheik is about to be your new WWE Champ

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Look at radio edit man over here lol.

Haha! I don't think I ever heard it not on the radio back in the day.

Generally corporate buyouts run a 30% premium. It's certainly high but not as unreasonable as some are saying. It's a basic sales technique to start the conversation high as an anchoring device and let the counterparty talk you down to something more reasonable.

Hey, don't compare a complete joke of a sports franchise with WWE.

He was getting old and I don't think any of his kids were interested in running his company.

Nah just when sports are scripted because why not be greedy and make terrible calls that change the entire game and create profit for people. It's why more and more players are getting caught betting. Futbol is the worst offender. Now throw in protesting to the corruption and it's a no brainer to tune out and go cheer on the kids and collegiate level. I'm just not dumb enough to keep supporting it like y'all dumbasses. Trillions of dollars wasted on all the major sport organizations scamming you for their million dollar salaries. Support your local sports not the trash organizations like all of fifa.

After Vince bought WCW, wrestling entertainment went way down hill.

Murdoch doesn’t have a large Disney holding. Outside of the institutions which now have the biggest positions in Disney, the largest individual shareholders are now Iger, the CFO and board members.

WWE’s market cap is 6.5 billion right now. The company is worth more than 10x what it was during the attitude era. Their reach is massive now. 9 billion is a little high but I’d bet 8.5 is around the price that makes sense given a normal buyout premium.

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And he will most likely get it - or at least very close. There is even a chance it could go for more than the $9B. There are few companies out there with the ability to get the eyeballs but not be too expensive for multiple companies to acquire.

How do you manage to be so inaccurate in so few words. Congrats.

People on this site have a tendency to assume something is no longer popular just because they're not in the target demographic anymore.

Like obviously you heard more buzz about wrestling in the 90s, you were probably a kid and so were all your friends.

How do you manage to be so clueless with out even being aware?

Who knew the homoerotic entertainment industry was worth 9 billion?

Nfl football is more watched, a better sport overall, more entertaining, and more valuable. The nfl is more valuable than all the big soccer leagues combined, and for good reason.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2022/09/08/the-worlds-50-most-valuable-sports-teams-2022/?sh=5e967622385c

Your really sourcing the daily mail lol

You're right in some senses though. I'd take a soccer team for longevity over WWE. The WWE has a lot of merchandising, tv deals, theyve diversified their assets, and generally are a well run company. It's a bit more complex it how it can grow compared to a soccer team, which will always retain value. The WWE could grow more valuable if you continue to run it well, or go to shit if it's poorly run and be worth much less. Most soccer teams, especially like Manchester United, is only to go up in value. But I think the expansion past a team is a lot rarer than what the WWE grew into.

Nobody cares about american football outside of the US. It brings money because it's the pride of your country and it's the biggest economy in the world. NOBODY cares about it outside the US, nobody plays it outside of some minor amateur groups here and there. The European league failed because nobody cares about it.

You saying it's more entertaining or "a better sport overall" just shows you're just stubborn and subjective as fuck. Better how? For the brain damage? Entertaining how? With the 50 pauses per minute after every single play?

Nah dude lol.

I'll give him 5 dollars

I know it's hard to accept "the greatest game" isn't really the greatest game. But soccer currently has many flaws in the way it is run that devalues its entertainment value for most people. Soccer/football is easier to understand since it's such a basic game compared to the NFL it just feels a bit shallow watching something with such little strategy.

Since it's a big thing for your brain to accept, I included ample evidence below.

Soccer is actually losing popularity while the NFL is growing. It's not in a healthy spot due to super teams, lack of entertainment in most games, poor or lacking post seasons, and a lack of parity. It's in a hard position and I'm not sure (nor are a lot of people), how it gets out of it in Europe. As it declines there be ready for a down period where the NFL will likely expand and take more of the Market in a Europe.

On Soccers issues:

> "Football is facing problems which won't resolve on their own," he said.

> European football is losing its undisputed leadership in global sports. European club football is not living up to its potential by not offering week after week the best sport on a global stage

https://www.iol.co.za/sport/soccer/european-football-is-dying-says-new-ceo-of-super-league-promoter-5fb2b009-8970-4eec-8751-c2d0bcac0031

Or how football/soccer is struggling in Australia

https://alexanifantis86.medium.com/football-is-dying-a-slow-death-in-australia-heres-why-d2a12fa096db

Why NFL is more entertaining:

Nfl has much more parity than soccer/football ever could. Parity makes each game more exciting. Any team can get better within a couple of years. Seeing so much variety in success marks a healthy league. The domination you see in soccer/football makes the leagues feel stagnant and predictable.

The short season of the nfl also adds to the entertainment value of each game as every game matters. Every moment of every game is hung onto.

Not the mention that the game of American football is much more varied and difficult than soccer is. There is so little strategy in soccer compared to American football. In between each snap in American football is a game of chess that is then played out by incredible athletes.

In America football you can have a big play with a fumble, interception, long pass, td, sack etc. this variation within the game compared to soccer makes each more more entertaining per minute played. I think this is common sense compared to the simple game of soccer

In the NFL some rich person can't just spend billions to buy stars. The cap in the NFL prevents making a team overpowered though money. You see some real issues with parity and interest with the lack of competition between lower football/soccer teams compared to the NFL.

You really like seeing people win by points in a season instead of a post season? Soccer leagues that do that, and lack a post season in general are just weak. Not a huge fan of consistent draws.

The NFL is the most valuable league in the world, with the NFL being worth more than all of the major soccer leagues combined. I know this is somewhat irrelevant to the watcher, but the amount of money into makes the production value high quality and consistently evolving.

Evidence you are very wrong about people not caring outside of the US

Nfl is extremely dominant in America. I don't have to go into those numbers. however, below is some hard data of how the NFL continues to grow in world markets. It is popular in Mexico and has been for a long time. Europe has been hosting games that sell out in 24 hours since 2007. Because of the popularity they added game's internationally, recently in Germany which has a fast growing NFL fandom. I expect that to continue and rival football due to the above issues. If you don't believe me I included a lot of hard data showing the NFLs growth. If it is this popular in America, imagine how popular it will continue to grow. Meanwhile soccer has peaked with its saturation and the generally low quality of play across leagues makes the lesser teams have interest drawing people.

> Up until some years ago, London was the biggest ‘hub’ of NFL fans in Europe. Lately, Germany has long surpassed Britain and has eventually become the largest market in the region. A recent study showed that both countries have nearly 3.3 million avid fans and as much as 17 million casual fans. Amongst those fans, a very large percentage is actively showing interest by consuming branded products, purchasing subscriptions to TV broadcasts, placing wagers on their favorite teams and so on.

https://www.americanfootballinternational.com/the-nfl-is-gaining-more-and-more-fans-in-europe/amp/