Wrestling

9/26/2023 |  Jade Cargill signs deal with WWE; former AEW champion reporting to training center (USA TODAY) Jade Cargill, one of the fastest rising stars in wrestling after a dominant run in AEW, has signed a multi-year deal with WWE in a major free agent signing for the company.
ESPN was first to report the signing.
The signing confirms weekslong rumors Cargill would sign with WWE after her deal with AEW came to an end. WWE reported Cargill will begin training at the company's performance center in Orlando, but is unclear if she will make her first appearance in the developmental NXT or if she will debut on the main roster on "Raw" or "Smackdown."

9/21/2023 |  WWE founder Vince McMahon sets the stage for his possible exit (AXIOS Sports) Pro wrestling magnate Vince McMahon is hinting that he wants out of the family business, according to regulatory filings tied to WWE's recent merger with the UFC.
Driving the news: The new combined entity, TKO, has registered all of McMahon's shares for sale, thus enabling him to avoid the lockup period that applies to other TKO stockholders like Endeavor and Silver Lake.

• McMahon currently holds around 28.84 million TKO shares, which was valued at $3 billion as of yesterday's market close.

9/21/2023 |  WWE’s ‘SmackDown’ to return to NBCUniversal’s USA Network in more than $1.4 billion deal (CNBC Sports)

• WWE’s “Friday Night SmackDown” will return to NBCUniversal’s USA Network in October 2024.
• The deal comes out to an average of $287 million per year, a total value of over $1.4 billion, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
• Share of TKO Group Holdings dropped following the announcement.

WWE’s “Friday Night SmackDown” will return to USA Network in October 2024 as part of a five-year domestic media rights partnership between TKO Group Holdings and NBCUniversal, WWE said Thursday.

9/21/2023 |  NBC Inks WWE SmackDown Rights for Reported $1.4 Billion (Front Office Sports) Broadcasts of WWE’s SmackDown will leave Fox to return to USA Network as part of a new five-year deal between WWE and NBC Universal. WWE’s “Friday Night SmackDown” will broadcast on USA Network starting in October 2024.
NBC will pay $287 million per year for the U.S. rights to SmackDown, a total value of more than $1.4 billion, according to CNBC. It is a payment roughly 40% more than WWE’s existing five-year deal it began in 2019 with Fox, in which the network pays $205 million annually.

9/21/2023 |  TKO Makes First Big Move After WWE-UFC Merger (Front Office Sports) The newly formed TKO Group Holdings confirmed initial projections by making its first big move following the landmark, $21.4 billion UFC-WWE merger. But Wall Street immediately made it clear that it’s still not happy.
Just nine days after WWE president Nick Khan said the company was “pretty deep” in its rights negotiation process for Raw and SmackDown and predicted a sizable rights increase, NBC completed a new five-year, $1.4 billion pact for the U.S. rights to SmackDown.