Jeff Jarrett says WWE and UFC have different fanbases, but there are opportunities for some crossover.
On September 12, WWE's deal with Endeavor closed, so the com[any merged with UFC to form TKO. Fans continue to speculate about potential crossover between the two companies.
Speaking with ESPN, UFC senior executive vice president and chief operating officer Lawrence Epstein said, "Where we want to get is where every UFC fan is a WWE fan and every WWE fan is a UFC fan."
UFC President Dana White then shared his thoughts by noting that he didn't think there was much crossover between the two companies.
Speaking on My World with Jeff Jarrett, the WWE Hall of Famer was asked to share his thoughts on Dana White's comments. He stated that he thought Epstein meant the goal is to create synergies with "mega weekends." Jarrett explained that he could see the upside of having WWE and UFC run shows on the same weekend. However, he also stated that the fanbases are different.
“This is what’s bizarre. I thought Epstein’s point was, we want to create synergies on mega weekends, pay-per-view weekends, where you have a Friday night event for UFC and a Saturday night event for WWE, or a Saturday/Sunday, whatever it might be. I thought, not only yes, but hell yes. I believe, for the majority, it is two separate fanbases. But you have one load in, one up and down, I’m talking about from a production point of view. You’re in one arena, you have the synergies of finance and HR and administrative and accounting and all that kind of stuff. Okay, well, their place of work is in one town, not two. So there’s a lot of situations where I think there’s an upside, and I also think you can just own the town. Go see UFC Friday, go see WWE Saturday because it really is, for the most part, two different audiences. I think we’re gonna see that. I’m not sure exactly how that’s gonna flush out, but I’m not gonna say a Mania weekend, a SummerSlam, or a Survivor Series, the big four, so to speak, I don’t think it’s gonna happen on those weekends, but let’s just take Payback in Pittsburgh, I could see a Friday-Saturday with that because there’s so many events. I think it can create a whole new kind of branding initiative with a lot of upside, and you can have the occasional, we’ll call it a fan-fest, where you have it all under one off. I think there’s a lot of ways to monetize that. I think it’s great for the industry as a whole. I think it’s great for AEW, I think it’s great for any and everything, and I don’t put them in the same bucket. I think it’s great for MMA, and I think it’s great for professional wrestling," Jarrett said.
Co-host Conrad Thompson noted that it would be exciting to see UFC used WWE's level of production. Jarrett stated that he thinks it will happen. He then highlighted the differences between WWE and UFC. Jarrett continued by describing how WWE benefits from utilizing past stars in a meaningful way.
"I think we’re gonna see it. In a lot of ways, I’ve said this going back three generations, in professional wrestling, wink-wink, we control wins and losses and presentations and storylines and everything that goes with it. In the UFC, they don’t have that luxury, so to speak. So it is always a different game. It literally is. What are we going to promote? Because they don’t create Conor McGregors every day. You gotta capture that lighting in a bottle, whereas you don’t create a John Cena overnight, but man, you can create one. That’s what’s really cool. You can utilize past stars in such a monstrous way," Jarrett said.
Jarrett previously commented on the WWE/UFC merger and noted that the business will continue to change. Check out his comments here.
Nick Khan has said they envision an All-Star TKO Weekend. Click here to see what he had to say.
Khan also noted that UFC stars could have a longer life in WWE. Check out his comments here.
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