Don't expect major crossover events between the UFC and WWE.
With the news of the UFC-WWE merger earlier this week, the combat sports world has been dreaming up crossover scenarios between the two worlds.
The UFC stars are also getting in on it as featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker recently cosplayed as WWE legends “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan.
In reality, most observers likely acknowledged the merger would not affect the programming of both companies and that they would continue running independently of each other.
This was confirmed by UFC president Dana White who revealed what actual changes would come as a result of the merger.
“I’m sure better deals will be made with the arenas,” White told AP (via MMA Junkie). “Alliances will be made. Deals and alliances and sponsorships, the list goes on and on. The business side is really where you’re going to see a big difference. As far as the performance and what we do, you’ll never see a difference in that.
“… There won’t really be any type of crossover. Yeah, Brock Lesnar, who wanted to come over to the UFC and test himself became the heavyweight champion. He’s that good of an athlete. Then, you had Ronda Rousey who was a world champion here and then went over to WWE and tested herself there and became a world champion. That type of synergy will still exist.”
Going further into the topic, the UFC head honcho believes the merger will ultimately help both brands grow even more.
“The thing with this new entity that we’re building, if you look at what we’ve done at the UFC and we continue to do what we do over here, the WWE does what they do and continues to do what they do, and Endeavor and Ari continue to do what they do, it’s just a very powerful company with a ton of great synergy,” White added.
“There are a lot of great things that we can help WWE with to help their business grow. There’s a lot of things. Because when you look at what Endeavor and UFC has done together, we sold for $4.025 billion. Now, the company is worth $12.03 billion. There’s a lot of things that we can add to WWE with the synergies that we’ve created with WME and UFC.”
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