On April 3, WWE announced an agreement to sell to Endeavor, which is also the parent company of UFC. WWE and UFC will merge to form a new publicly traded company by the end of the year.
WWE and UFC sides have said that there won't be much, if any, crossover between the two companies as far as talent appearing or competing, but Endeavor has said they will run the "UFC Playbook" in promoting WWE.
Asked by CNBC about the impact of the WWE and UFC merger, Tony Khan said, "In terms of business, I think both companies are focused on pro wrestling, in terms of AEW and WWE. Working with outside sports is great, but for me in AEW, our primary focus is the fans, and for us that's the wrestling fans. Whenever you can bring in people from outside pro wrestling, celebrities or athletes or both, it can be very exciting, and there is a lot of history in the business of great cross promotions involving celebrities and wrestling, and athletes from outside of wrestling coming into pro wrestling. Alternatively, there have been some not-great promotions that other people, outside of AEW, at times have done."
Khan previously commented that the WWE sale was a positive for the wrestling business. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
AEW is set to partner with NJPW for Forbidden Door 2 on Sunday, June 25. Fans can check out the current lineup for the show by clicking 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.
