Report Suggests AEW’s Shahid & Tony Khan Are “In The Pool Of Potential Buyers For WWE”
A new report has suggested that the owners of All Elite Wrestling (AEW) could be interested in buying World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
The big news in the wrestling world to start 2023 is that Vince McMahon is back as the Executive Chairman of WWE. In July 2022, Vince retired from WWE due to numerous ‘hush money’ payments made to numerous female former employees of the company that totaled over $12 million. After sitting on the sidelines for five months, Vince felt like he could return and so he has.
Meanwhile, Vince is back on the WWE Board of Directors as of January 6th, 2023 and he’s back in the mix as Executive Chairman. Meanwhile, Vince’s daughter Stephanie McMahon recently resigned as WWE Chairwoman and Co-CEO as well.
Following his return to WWE, Vince made it clear that his intention is to try to sell WWE instead of simply negotiating media rights as they have done in the past. The current WWE deals with NBC Universal for Raw and FOX for Smackdown expire in October 2024. It is believed that the WWE sale will likely happen within the first six months of 2023.
Since Vince McMahon is the majority shareholder in WWE, he has a lot of say in what happens in terms of who WWE is sold to.
A new report from Barrons.com, which is a sister publication to the Wall Street Journal and a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, has revealed that AEW owners Shahid Khan and his son Tony Khan are among the potential buyers of WWE. The article is part of Barrons’ subscription and wrote this about the Khan family’s interest in buying WWE.
“All Elite Wrestling—the top rival to WWE, led by Tony Khan and family—is in the pool of potential buyers for WWE, a person close to the potential transaction told Barron’s, adding that the Khans will likely look for a financial partner to acquire the asset.”
Shahid Khan and his son Tony, who is also the President & General Manager of AEW, already own the NFL football team the Jacksonville Jaguars and the English soccer club Fulham Football Club along with many other businesses.
It is unknown if Vince McMahon would even consider selling WWE to a bid led by the owners of their rival wrestling company, but it certainly would lead to a lot of interest from wrestling fans.
The article from Barrons also listed other companies just as we have covered elsewhere on TJRWrestling. Some of the potential WWE buyers Comcast/NBCU, Disney, Amazon, Netflix, Endeavor Group and the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund among others.