The greatest annual revenue in the history of WWE was revealed during an earnings call held by officials on Thursday. WWE CEO Nick Khan indicated that there are more interested bidders now than there were in the previous phase, when WWE only had two potential purchasers, as media rights deals are slated to expire in 2024 and negotiations are expected to start later in the year.
While Fox presently owns “SmackDown,” USA currently retains the rights to “Raw” and “NXT.” Additionally, WWE has a contract with Hulu, which has the exclusive right to watch its shows the day after they air. In 2023, WWE is consistently smashing records, starting in January. Before any matches were revealed, the corporation declared that Wrestlemania 39 had already shattered the previous record for the largest gate of any Wrestlemania.
The January 23 “Raw XXX” special brought in the largest domestic gate in the show’s history and completely sold out Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center. In San Antonio, Texas, at the Alamodome, the Royal Rumble professional wrestling event concluded the month with great success. The most watched and financially successful Rumble was the premium live event in 2023.
Sami Zayn and Roman Reigns
It broke the previous record set by the 2017 Royal Rumble, which also took place at the Alamodome, by more than 50%, and set a new record with a gate of over $7.7 million.WWE’s winning streak is only getting hotter with Sami Zayn and Roman Reigns possibly headlining Elimination Chamber on February 18 and Cody Rhodes taking on Reigns at WrestleMania in April.
It’s understandable why more purchasers desire to participate in the market. WWE President Nick Khan’s path to the top of the industry is unlike that of most of the company’s executives. The former Creative Artists representative worked on one-time deals with World Wrestling Entertainment and wowed WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.
Khan talked about his early work with WWE. While at CA, I had the good fortune to get into the WWE business as their agent, Khan explained. We’d had some success as a team. We all began work on the US media rights deal together during 2017. The AAV for RAW and SmackDown was reported to be $130 million per year. We started a business together and made a lot of money. For those rights, I believe it went to 3.6 times or something to that effect.
