If there’s one thing WWE fans know about Vince McMahon, it’s that he’s a workaholic. As the Chairman and CEO of WWE, Vince appears to be busier than ever, even in his early 70s. This past weekend, there were reports of McMahon launching a new company on his own called Alpha Entertainment and he might even bring the XFL back (or some football league with a different name) with a possible announcement coming next month.
On a recent edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer speculated that McMahon may be more interested than ever in selling WWE, in part due to his new business venture and the sale of UFC in 2016. Here are some points Meltzer made about why the timing could be right.
“There is an argument for the McMahons to sell right now, especially when you look at the interest of the key owners. Shane and Linda are already on the outside, so the sale would only give them more money, and they could have more liquid assets. Stephanie seems to be pursuing a mainstream, charitable corporate path that could be best pursued within WWE or a foundation using her own money. Only Triple H clearly has his future set on running a wrestling company.
“The odds are that if somebody buys WWE and Vince gets out, the odds are really strong that Triple H, Vince’s protege, would be the guy put in charge, because they won’t think of anybody else.”
That led to Meltzer and co-host Bryan Alvarez talking about how Triple H has job security now, but if there was a sale with a new owner he wouldn’t have that. Meltzer went on to talk about how Vince McMahon starting Alpha Entertainment could change things in the future for WWE.
“Vince creating his personal property for business projects is the type of thing somebody does before they sell their main company. I don’t know. For a long time, people have talked about Vince selling the company. I always thought Vince wouldn’t want to sell the wrestling company because it’s like his life. He may not, but at the same time but when that UFC sale went for $4 billion, all of a sudden the game changed. If they could get anything close to $4 billion, and they couldn’t, but I think Vince would be out in a heartbeat because the number is so big.”
“So now [Vince is] starting his own company, and if he sells WWE he would have way more money for the new company. The thing is, does Vince want to sell wrestling to fund football stuff or whatever? I know he wants to be something other than a wrestling promoter, but I don’t know if he actually wants to be not [in] wrestling. So it’s all interesting to me.”
So there’s nothing on the horizon to indicate a sale is likely at this point, or even probable. But as Meltzer pointed out, Vince creating his own company separate from WWE is the kind of thing somebody might do if they’re looking to sell their main business. Just something to think about, and as much as McMahon loves and takes tremendous pride in the company he created, not even he may be able to turn down an opportunity to make billions in one fell swoop.
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