Dana White shoots down UFC exec's grand vision for crossover with WWE audience
LAS VEGAS – One prominent UFC executive envisions the potential for future UFC and WWE fan crossover to reach heights never thought possible, but it’s not Dana White.
Tuesday’s announcement of the formation of TKO, a new $21.4 billion publicly traded sports entertainment company that merges the two powerhouse promotions from MMA and pro wrestling, figures to open a world of possibility to tap into both fanbases. So much so, in fact, that UFC senior executive vice president and chief operating officer Lawrence Epstein is thinking on the grandest of scales.
“Where we want to get is where every UFC fan is a WWE fan and every WWE fan is a UFC fan,” Epstein told ESPN.
To White, who now carries the title of UFC CEO, that’s “one of the dumbest statements of all time.”
“I don’t know why he said that,” White, who was in New York to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning, told MMA Junkie and other reporters after Dana White’s Contender Series on Tuesday night in Las Vegas. “I don’t even know what to say to that. No, there’s no – there’s some crossover. Some people like WWE, some people like UFC, some like both. I don’t think there’s ever gonna be a day where we turn every UFC fan into a WWE fan or every WWE fan into a UFC fan.”
“Massive changes” to both UFC and WWE are not expected, according to Epstein, with White still running day-to-day operations for UFC while Paul Levesque (wrestler name “Triple H”) will remain the chief of creative for WWE. One way Epstein sees opportunity to make his vision come true is for the UFC and WWE to bring events to the same city on the same weekend and selling that to tourism authorities.
As White mentioned, there has been some crossover between the two fan bases, especially as former UFC fighters such as Ronda Rousey, Shayna Baszler and Matt Riddle became WWE stars in recent years, while WWE stars such as Brock Lesnar and CM Punk competed in the octagon. White just never sees the crossover reaching the level Epstein envisions.
“What’s beautiful about the synergy between these two fanbases is they are very completely opposite,” White said. “There’s very little crossover. Maybe he was misquoted. I hope that’s the case, because I could not disagree with him more.”