UFC president Dana White rejects the plan of the UFC executive to attract WWE fans. Dana openly shoots over the plan of one of the prominent UFC executives. Is this unethical of the president to publicly show his disapproval of his senior members’ decisions? Is Dana being irrational in his decision not to combine MMA and pro wrestling? If they take the decision would it be beneficial to both parties? Continue reading to find out!
The creation of TKO, a new $21.4 billion publicly traded sports entertainment corporation that combines the two pro wrestling and MMA powerhouse enterprises, was announced on Tuesday, and it opens up a world of opportunity to reach both fan groups. In reality, Lawrence Epstein, senior executive vice president and chief operational officer of the UFC, is imagining the biggest of scopes.
Epstein told ESPN that they wanted to reach a point where every UFC fan would be a WWE fan, and every WWE fan would be a UFC fan. White, who now holds the title of UFC CEO, responded by stating that it was “one of the dumbest statements of all time.”
White, who had been in New York to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning, told reporters after Dana White’s Contender Series on Tuesday night in Las Vegas that he didn’t understand why Epstein had made that statement. He expressed his uncertainty about how to respond to it, and he stated that there was some crossover between the two fan bases, with some people enjoying both WWE and UFC. White also expressed doubt that there would ever come a day when every UFC fan would become a WWE fan or vice versa.
According to Epstein, “massive changes” are not anticipated for either the UFC or WWE. White will continue to oversee daily operations for the UFC, and Paul Levesque (a.k.a. “Triple H”) will continue to serve as the company’s chief creative officer. The UFC and WWE holding events in the same city on the same weekend and pitching that to tourism authorities are two ways Epstein sees opportunities to realize his goal.
Since former UFC fighters like Ronda Rousey, Shayna Baszler, and Matt Riddle have recently become WWE stars and WWE stars like Brock Lesnar and CM Punk have participated in the octagon, as White stated, there has been some crossover between the two fan bases. White simply doesn’t see the crossover developing to the extent that Epstein does.
White mentioned that the alliance between the two fanbases was unique because they were fundamentally different. He noted that there was very little overlap between them, and he expressed his hope that Epstein had been misquoted, as he strongly disagreed with Epstein’s statement.
Is white gonna be one of the biggest hurdles in this plan? Is he thinking logically or is it just that he has a disliking towards WWE? Do you think this plan is illogical and Dana White is preventing big harm from happening? Do let us know about your thoughts in the comment section!
