Former WWE boss Vince McMahon was a visionary, but he was not particularly keen on the UFC initially. If personally tanking Dana White’s NBL deal wasn’t proof enough, this story about conflict with his son, Shane, over the UFC should do.
White, the long-time promotional president, was promoted to the position of CEO last year, following the merger with TKO Group Holdings, which makes the UFC and WWE sister companies.
Earlier this week, White and WWE executive Stephanie McMahon linked up on the former’s What’s Your Story? podcast. During the interview, White looked to delve into claims that Stephanie’s brother Shane was put off buying an early stake in the UFC by his father.
“I was thinking about your brother [Shane McMahon] today,” White told Stephanie.
“And basically, there was this rumor out there, that your brother wanted to buy the UFC. He thought it could be big — and your father didn’t believe in it. And your father wouldn’t do it.”
Failing to be led too deeply into the conversation, Stephanie admitted there was some truth to that rumor, indeed.
“So, there’s a little bit of truth in that,” McMahon said. Claiming that Shane has always been a huge fan [of the UFC], Stephanie joked that she was the subject to his multitude of violent experiments.
On a serious note, she also admitted, “There was, you know, a different vision. You have always had the vision of the UFC. You’ve never wavered on how you wanted it to be presented. And what you believe in, and what fighting actually means to you.”
Regardless of how it all turned out, Vince later ended up regretting not having bought the MMA promotion when they could have.
Why Vince didn’t want to buy UFC
The main reason, McMahon claimed he had no control over the outcome of the bouts, and admitted the UFC was a “sport” compared to professional wrestling entertainment.
“When it was presented in terms of buying UFC. I didn’t like that business model,” Vince explained during the Mr. McMahon series on Netflix.
“Because our business model, you can create characters much like Disney or someone else. And we can use them forever”, he noted.
“As opposed to a boxer/UFC [fighter], once you’re beat, once you’re hurt or something, your career’s over. We’re in show business. That’s a sport”, he continued, explaining the difference between the two similar-looking yet very different businesses.
Vince forced UFC’s Fox deal
Ironically, once the UFC became a big, profitable entity, Vince saw them as competition.
Back in 2011, when the UFC was just about to close a broadcasting deal with NBC, Vince stepped in to ensure the papers didn’t go through because the idea of two combat sports entities on the same network didn’t sit well with him.
“One of my big deal points was that The Ultimate Fighter had to be on USA [Network]. We’re literally in New York for days, hammering it out with all the executives over there. Finally, they come back and say ‘we’ll do it, we’ll put The Ultimate Fighter on USA.’”, White revealed on the podcast.
However, the very next day, White received a call saying the deal was not going forward.
“They’re like ‘we can’t believe this, we didn’t know this, we just found out — Vince McMahon has the right to determine whether another combat sport can come onto USA’,” the UFC boss added, still shocked that it was a real stipulation that came with NBC’s contract with the WWE.
The UFC would then go on to sign with FOX in 2012, a deal that would only come to an end in 2018.
Interestingly, as of right now, with UFC’s ESPN deal coming to an end, it is possible that the Dana White-led promotion might finally find a shared broadcaster with the WWE – that is if the rumored Netflix deal, which is estimated to be around $1 billion per year, goes through.
