Massive 2023 Salary Revealed For TKO Bosses
The bosses of TKO Group were paid very well in 2023, which was the year when they acquired World Wrestling Entertainment.
It was in April 2023 on the day after WrestleMania 39 when it was announced that Endeavor was going to acquire WWE and merge it with UFC to form a powerful entity known as TKO Group.
In September 2023, TKO Group officially started to trade on the stock market. TKO Group was said to be valued at $21 billion with WWE worth $9 billion according to a press release from Endeavor, which meant UFC made up the other $12 billion.
The leaders of Endeavor are TKO’s CEO Ari Emanuel and COO Mark Shapiro. According to Deadline, Shapiro received a pay pack valued at $65 billion in 2023. Shapiro received a $911K base salary, a cash bonus of $24 million dollars, and $40 million dollars in stock awards.
As for Shapiro, he received a package worth $16 million.
Deadline’s story cited a proxy noting that the success of UFC & WWE live events, the WWE Raw/international deal with Netflix and other factors led to them determining the paydays for Emanuel and Shapiro.
The compensation committee noted revenue, adjusted ebitda gains, cost reduction, strong turnout for UFC and WWE live events, and a set of media rights deals for WWE, including a long-term deal with Netflix. “The effective leadership of our named executive officers was critical to our success in achieving these financial results and strategic activity milestones and, as a result, was a key factor when establishing incentive compensation levels and determining the compensation for our named executive officers for 2023,” the proxy said.
TKO Group WWE & UFC Working Together To Present NXT PLE
In an example of TKO Group having WWE and UFC on the same page, the WWE NXT Battleground Premium Live Event was moved from Savannah, GA and instead will take place at the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas on June 9th.
WWE & UFC JOIN FORCES TO BRING NXT BATTLEGROUND TO UFC APEX ON SUNDAY, JUNE 9
STAMFORD, Conn., April 22, 2024 – WWE, part of TKO Group Holdings (NYSE: TKO), in partnership with UFC today announced that NXT Battleground will emanate from UFC APEX in Las Vegas on Sunday, June 9. This marks the first-ever WWE event to be hosted at the state-of-the-art, 130,000-square foot event and production facility, which is home to UFC Fight Night events, Dana White’s Contender Series and more.
“We are always exploring new frontiers to showcase NXT and we are excited to bring Battleground to this world-class event and production facility in partnership with UFC,” said WWE Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative Shawn Michaels.
That will be the NXT brand’s third PLE of 2023 following Vengeance Day in February and Stand & Deliver, which took place in early April in Philadelphia during WrestleMania weekend.