Despite the explosive rumor earlier this week about a sale to the Saudi PIF, which has got stomped out almost as quickly as it came to light, the WWE, if it does in fact sell, is very much unspoken for. At the Streaming Advisor, we believe that if the WWE sells it will be to Comcast, a longtime TV partner that also hosts the WWE Network library and live premium events on Peacock.
While not a sure thing, Comcast has been looking to build Peacock around live sports, and while the WWE is not a sports league, its place as a global sports entertainment brand is not to be ignored. Heck, that is why the Saudi story seemed feasible to some in the first place. That and a total lack of journalistic integrity.
CNBC reported on a new rumor, that AEW a competing pro wrestling promotion is interested in a merger with WWE. The organization has shows on TNT and TBS, though, unlike WCW the last big competitor to WWE, keeps its programming away from head-to-head matchups. The promotion is considerably smaller than the WWE making the chances of such a move pretty unlikely to happen. The size of the promotion itself though is no reflection on its ownership, the Khan family is the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and anybody who understands the makeup of the NFL knows there are no poor NFL owners.
Such a move would effectively tie the entire wrestling world together in a bow by essentially bridging the careers of every top name and more in the business under one banner. The likelihood that Vince McMahon came back to the company to sell it to another pro wrestling operation feels extremely unlikely. Any longtime observer who has seen McMahon absorb the libraries. territories and histories of all of his former competitors would much sooner expect the move to be made the other way around.
The WWE may well have a new owner in 2023. We will keep an eye on this story.
