The tens of thousands of fans who crowded into SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles for WrestleMania this weekend got to watch wrestling icon John Cena be hurled to the canvas by Austin Theory, one of World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) biggest stars.
Offstage, bankers and executives huddled in conference suites at the stadium to put the finishing touches on a new plot for WWE’s future. Endeavor, an entertainment colossus run by Hollywood power broker Ari Emanuel, was finalizing a deal to acquire WWE and merge it with Ultimate Fighting Championship, the combat sports league that Endeavor owns.
News of the deal, which aims to create a new public company worth more than $21 billion, broke Sunday before the second night of WrestleMania, with Emanuel in attendance alongside Vince McMahon, the executive chairman of WWE. The companies announced the deal Monday morning, saying the as-yet unnamed firm — whose stock will trade under the symbol "TKO” — would be a juggernaut in live entertainment and combat sports.