AEW is keen on a merger with WWE

WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon speaks at a press conference announcing the WWE Network at International CES 2014 in Las Vegas.

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All Elite Wrestling, a professional wrestling league owned by the Khan family, is interested in a merger World Wrestling Entertainmentsay people familiar with the matter.

The Khans, who also own the National Football League’s Jacksonville Jaguars and the Premier League’s Fulham FC, could work with a strategic media company to share intellectual property while the wrestling leagues merge, people who asked said. not to be named because of discussions are private. AEW has a television broadcasting rights agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery‘s TNT and TBS.

The idea that Vince McMahon, WWE’s majority shareholder, would merge his company with the much smaller AEW is far-fetched. AEW has not held discussions with McMahon or Nick Khan, the company’s chief executive officer, the people said. McMahon can consider the sale to the Khans a non-starter.

The Khans are open to discussing a possible role for McMahon, 77, after a sale but have not had those talks yet, one of the people said. It’s unclear what kind of job McMahon wants after a sale with WWE, but WWE is a much larger and more established organization than AEW. McMahon, who was valued at more than $3 billion as of July, is also known as the primary creative force behind WWE’s storylines.

Sports magnate Shahid Khan, 72, is ranked 292nd on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of $7.56 billion. He also owns auto parts maker Flex-N-Gate.

Shahid Khan, the new owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

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The WWE sales process