WWE “Open For Business” Regarding Sponsors On Ring Mats, Around Ringside
A top WWE executive says the company is “open for business” in terms of bringing sponsors into the squared circle.
There have been some big WWE matches this year with advertisements all around the ring. At the Royal Rumble, Bray Wyatt beat LA Knight in the first-ever Mountain Dew “Pitch Black Match” that was used to promote Mountain Dew’s Pitch Black drink.
At WrestleMania, they had advertising around the ring for a few matches such as the “Intuit Turbo Tax” ads for the Men’s 4-Way Tag Team Match. There was also Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal present during the clash between Rey Mysterio and his son Dominik as you can see in the main photo of this story.
Nick Khan is WWE’s CEO who recently talked to ‘LightShed Live’ (which is subscription content) about how Endeavor acquiring WWE earlier this year to partner them with UFC should see WWE mirror the UFC in terms of some of the things that have worked so well for the MMA company.
“Look at what Endeavor has done with the UFC. I believe the UFC, pre-acquisition, their sales and sponsorship was around $35 million. It’s my understanding that that’s now borderline $200 million a year, which is far in advance of us.”
“If you think about it, UFC, an amazing sport, is a far grittier sport than WWE. So the fact that their sponsorship dollars far exceed us, that comes down in our opinion to Endeavor, obviously working in conjunction with the UFC to maximize those dollars. It’s what we want for our company.”
When it comes to placing advertising in the ring, it is not something WWE normally does, but Khan said they are open to it.
“We’re open for business. Ring mat, ring apron, the turnbuckles, everything that can be sold, we want to explore selling it.”
“Obviously, it needs to be the right product. It can’t be too distracting, but if it is the right relationship and the right company, we’re ready to go.”
It is worth noting that AEW has used their ring to promote their DraftKings sponsorship, so if WWE decides to do it, they wouldn’t be the first major promotion to do it.