WOR Video: The UFC-WWE merger finalizes

It’s official: UFC and WWE are now under one company.

On Tuesday, Endeavor officially merged WWE and UFC to form TKO, a new public company that will put WWE and UFC into one corporate umbrella. Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez discussed what the fallout will be from the deal on Thursday’s Wrestling Observer Radio. One thing is for sure: much like when Endeavor acquired UFC in 2016, there will be cuts as far as employees go.

“There was a lot of bloodletting,” Meltzer recalled when the UFC deal was finalized in 2016. Meltzer did say, however, that he didn’t expect cuts to the main roster.

One major departure already is WWE CFO Frank Riddick, who will leave at the end of September.

“He left the day after the merger with a five million dollar bonus, so maybe he just got the money and has a lot of WWE stock and just decided it’s time to go home and retire, or it could be he knew what was coming,” Meltzer said.

Despite all the changes, WWE is expected to be run the same as it has been for most of the year, with Paul Levesque in charge of creative but will be overseen by Vince McMahon, who will likely make changes.

“Product wise, it’s going to be what it’s been. Paul Levesque is in charge of creative, Vince McMahon can overrule him each week…that’s not going to change as long as Vince is in the picture, and Vince is going to be in the picture until he’s incapacited or something bad happens to him, which I hope isn’t anytime soon,” Meltzer said.