As previously reported, AEW owners Shahid and Tony Khan are interested in buying the WWE and a report from CNBC even indicated that they are interested in merging AEW and WWE and the Khans are looking to partner with a strategic media company so that they can share the intellectual property of both major wrestling promotions and merge them at the same time. There was also a mention on the story that this is a long shot and AEW has not had talks with Vince McMahon or Nick Khan, but the owners of All Elite Wrestling are definitely open to talk about a potential role for Vince McMahon once the sale is done, but no talks have happened.
Tony Khan appeared on the Maggie and Perloff Show to talk about the potential sale of the WWE and how he is definitely interested in being part of the sales process. AEW CEO Tony Khan also said that they are capable of making the big purchases and they have shown that they can build a company, despite it being very different with ROH and the WWE.
This is what Tony Khan said:
“I am interested in the news that there is potentially a sales process and certainly, I think we’ve shown, when there are acquisitions and transactions, we’re capable of making the big purchases, whether my dad steps up with the (Jacksonville) Jaguars or Fulham FC in the Premier League and he’s done such a great job building up the club and putting resources into it and we’re playing football at a high level. With AEW, we’ve shown that we can build a company. Even when I purchased Ring of Honor, that’s a very different thing than WWE, but Ring of Honor is a company with 20 years of history and I really have enjoyed running it and we’ve shown that we’re at all time highs in terms of every business metric since we relaunched it and it’s only going to get better. AEW is my main focus, but certainly, when that news is out there, it’s very interesting. Stay tuned to AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage, you never know when I’m going to address something. On the other hand, it’s very preliminary to talk about that process. If there is a process there, which it sounds like there may be, I’m interested in being part of it.”
WWE is hoping to have the company sold by mid-2023 and as of this writing there are several potential buyers including Endeavor, Comcast, Disney, ESPN and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. More news and updates will be provided on the WWE’s sale once it has been made available.
You can check out Tony Khan’s full comments in the tweet below. H/T to Fightful for transcribing the quotes.
