Nick Khan has clearly learned from the old Ghostbusters addage “don’t cross the streams.”
The WWE CEO is fresh off the heels of helping to facilitate the historic deal between WWE and Endeavor to create TKO Holdings Group and he’s hoping to create some positive synergy between themselves and UFC. Speaking to Bill Simmons in a new interview, Khan made note how the two entities are going to be cautious to not step on one another’s toes when running events.
“The conversations are happening now. Yes, what everyone envisions is, can you set up an all-star TKO weekend where SmackDown goes on Friday, UFC on Saturday with pay-per-view, and WWE goes with a premium live event on Sunday. Can you do that from the same city? Certainly, a lot of cost efficiencies there in terms of production, but a lot of revenue efficiencies in terms of upside there as well.”
Nick Khan Says WWE & UFC Are Together, But Also Separate
While WWE and UFC have had their fair share of crossover, Nick Khan is well aware of such a rareity happening, but doesn’t rule it happening again in the future.
“Certainly, the fighters and WWE superstars stay separate. Could you have a Ronda Rousey or Brock Lesnar come along who can cross from one to the other? Sure, but that’s a once-in-a-decade type of thing. In terms of production, [UFC Exec VP/Operations & Production] Craig Borsari and [WWE Line Producer] Kevin Dunn, they’ve had a number of conversations on those efficiencies, how it might look, how it might work. Hopefully, we have some news on that in a couple of months.”
H/t to Fightful for the transcription.