WWE president Nick Khan teased the possibility of more UFC fighters becoming WWE superstars after their MMA careers are over.
One of the big questions fans had about the new UFC / WWE merger under parent company Endeavor was whether this would change the product. Would we start seeing WWE stars showing up in the UFC? Would UFC fighters appear on WWE programs?
The merger has just become official and the new UFC / WWE company TKO is now trading on the stock market. We don’t have all the answers as to how things will change, but we did get a few hints from an ESPN article.
Where we want to get is where every UFC fan is a WWE fan,” UFC COO Lawrence Epstein said. “And every WWE fan is a UFC fan.”
We’re not sure how UFC fans will feel about that, especially after how aggressively Dana White (no longer the president of UFC but CEO) shoved Power Slap down our throats.
WWE fans may have to get used to the idea of UFC fighters crossing over more now. Ronda Rousey is the most famous example of a UFC superstar wrapping up their fighting career and making her way into the ring. WWE president Nick Khan said that model definitely something they’re looking at doing more.
“UFC fighters are going to stay focused on the UFC and WWE superstars obviously do something different in our ring,” Khan reassured. “But you also see in the UFC people with big personalities who, once their UFC run is done, once the UFC and the fighter says, ‘Hey, maybe now’s the time to call it a day,’ could those people have a longer life at WWE? An extended life with TKO? We think so.”
That doesn’t sound too terrible, we suppose. We just hope the two companies can resist going off the deep end with crossover promotion. The UFC has been absolutely shameless about shoving advertisements and sponsored content into everything they do. We’ve seen how Power Slap has started to dominate UFC socials. Having to sift through pro wrestling to get our MMA fix sounds like a nightmare.