The History Between Vince McMahon And Dana White, And How The WWE’s Sale Would Affect Its Rival

Vince McMahon has unretired. 

And as his first move in unretirement, reports have said that the World Wrestling Entertainment head is working towards selling the company to “maximize shareholder value.” Its shares are already up 30% this year after their stock advanced 40% in 2022. 

If and when the WWE sells, this could affect Dana White’s UFC. 

Earlier this week, Endeavor was one of the reported prospects who were interested in buying the company.  

But McMahon and White have a rivaled history together. 

White admitted in an interview that, back in 2011, McMahon challenged him to a fight. 

“Vince wanted to fight me—swear to God. He called me up, said, ‘Let’s do it. We can do it in the UFC, or let’s do it at WrestleMania.’ And I said, ‘You are crazy,’” White told RDS. 

It was during that time that the UFC was on the rise. The mixed martial arts promotions began to threaten the WWE’s pay-per-view audience, especially WrestleMania. The UFC would also hold pay-per-view events close to WWE’s PPVs. 

And what didn’t help WWE was that someone like former WWE champion Brock Lesnar crossed over into the UFC and even headlined UFC 116.  

Lesnar would eventually return to the wrestling ring – after McMahon built off on White’s antics to regain traction for his company — and it skyrocketed the WWE’s buy rates. 

Since then, the two promotions have continued to crossover including UFC star Ronda Rousey, WWE stars CM Punk and Dave Bautista, to name a few. 

The WWE has been able to recover, recently breaking its sales record for the upcoming WrestleMania in Los Angeles. 

Now, the market capitalization of WWE is $6.6 billion compared to Endeavor’s $10.2 billion, but only a part of that value can be attributed to UFC. Endeavor’s other revenue comes from non-UFC talent, film and TV production. 

Whoever ends up buying WWE, McMahon could put his 28.7 million shares to be worth $3.2 billion, putting his wealth close to $4 billion, based on data from Forbes, reported by Sportico.