Matt Hardy says it'll be an interesting time in WWE following the company's merger with UFC.
On September 12, WWE and UFC officially merged as TKO, as WWE's deal with Endeavor became official. The deal was previously agreed to in April, but it hadn't closed until September 12.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, the AEW star shared his thoughts on WWE's deal with Endeavor closing and the company merging with UFC.
“Dude, VKM, Vince McMahon had a hell of a run. You can’t deny that. It’s so appropriate, knowing and working as closely as I did with Vince in the past over so many years, the fact that he ended up selling the company and leaving on top, where no one will ever get the opportunity to make World Wrestling Federation, as far as an individual sole owner, better than him was just appropro for him. It really is. Very fitting. So the Endeavor thing is official, the merger has gone through. It’s gonna be so interesting, and I’m so curious of how it’s gonna work in conjunction working hand-in-hand with UFC and what they’re gonna do and what the changes are gonna be that come to the forefront. It’s gonna be a really interesting time in WWE," Hardy said.
Hardy was also asked to discuss the potential crossover between the WWE and UFC fanbases, as Dana White stated that he didn't think there was much of it. Hardy noted that he didn't expect to see UFC fans crossing over to wrestling, and vice versa, just because the two companies are now owned by the same parent company. However, Hardy stated that there would be some opportunities for promoting the two companies together.
“I don’t think you’re gonna have a lot of UFC mixed martial arts, shoot fighting fans really just jump other to wrestling because it’s also owned by the same company that owns UFC. I think people that enjoy the pageantry and the fantastical world of pro wrestling aren’t necessarily gonna jump to UFC, although I do think they’re both such unique, extreme sports and entertainment. I think there will be some great promotion you can do with them both together. I don’t know if fans of specifically pro wrestling or fans specifically of mixed martial arts are going to cross over and love the other brand just because now they’re under the same roof," Hardy said.
Emdeavor COO Mark Shapiro has said the mission is to capitalize on premium content and live events. Check out his comments here.
Click here to see what Jeff Jarrett had to say about the WWE/UFC merger.
Nick Khan recently noted that they envision an All-Star TKO weekend. More information is available here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
