Summary

Mark Shapiro said TKO has "complete control" over WWE's creative direction while discussing the company's role in the product during a University of Alabama class appearance.

Shapiro framed that control as part of the larger business changes that have followed WWE becoming part of TKO. He pointed to audience growth, expanded distribution deals, and heavier marketing as signs that the strategy has worked, even while acknowledging that some fans may be turned off by the way the product is now spread across multiple platforms.

He also pushed back on criticism of celebrity involvement in WWE storylines, arguing that crossover appearances from names like Logan Paul, Pat McAfee and others are not a new concept, only a bigger version of something wrestling has long used.

Quote from Mark Shapiro

"So I'll kind of walk you through that.

First of all, it has complete control, so we're responsible, good or bad, fact or fiction. You didn't hear about this stuff in the old days with WWE when Vince McMahon owned it because it was a private company for so many years, so they didn't put out, like, their financial results, if you will. Nobody knew, they knew it was successful and the brand was strong and it had a legion of fans, but they didn't really know how the business worked and what it was making, etc.

Then Vince went public with WWE, and then TKO was formed with UFC and WWE coming together. So those two companies came together and launched TKO, which is a public company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol TKO, TKO. And now everything's kind of out there.

But what I would tell you is WWE has grown in every way. It's grown in financial results, but more importantly, it's grown in audience. It's grown with social, it's grown in stars, it's grown in clicks, views, short-form video. I mean, it's really exploded. And the reason for that is it was really just on Peacock and USA.

And now since TKO, we did a new deal which put Raw, our big Monday night show, on Netflix. Tripled our audience. And then we put SmackDown, which is our Friday night show, we put that on USA. And we put our developmental league, which is called NXT, on CW. And CW is linear, but CW has 100 million homes, so it really grew NXT.

And then what we call the premium live events, which is our big event, every month we have one big event. Those are the weekly shows that I just mentioned, and then we have one big event every month: Royal Rumble, Crown Jewel, you know, name your SummerSlam. And those used to air on Peacock, and now ESPN bought that deal, so we're now on the ESPN app.

And this weekend, of course, is WrestleMania 42, which is taking place in Las Vegas.

So as far as the stars part of it, like, I don't think that's true, but if it was, good. I mean, The Rock is the biggest star on the planet, right? We, I mean, he actually is, and we, represent him at WME. He was a wrestler for WWE for years before he ever became a Jumanji star, right? I mean, that's just, that's who he is.

So having Hollywood tie-ins and celebs and stars and Logan Paul and Pat McAfee and Mark Wahlberg shows up and does his thing, or, Tyrese Haliburton last year got in a fight in the ring with Jalen Brunson of the Knicks, that's not new, it's just on a larger stage. And we're spending a lot more money to market the brand and market the content.

And when you do that, you're going to win some folks over, but you're also going to chase some folks away. You know, they don't like this, or they don't like that, or this is too expensive, or 'I don't want to have to, oh my God, I got to watch the WWE, I got to buy Netflix, which costs this much, I got to watch SmackDown on USA, I got to do that, I got to have CW, so I have to have cable or linear television, and now I have to pay for ESPN.'

And you can make some enemies really quickly. I was just reading something today, the friend was showing me, that if you want to watch the Yankees games this year, the New York Yankees games, the full season through the playoffs, you'll have to watch them across 10 platforms at the cost of $1,000 when you add up everything you have to buy to see them.

That's just the way of the world today, and you will chase away some fans. So that's not good, but hopefully you're getting some quality storytelling and also programming around just the Yankees.

Like, if you go to Paramount+ right now to see UFC, you may buy Paramount+ just to get the UFC, but you also might already have it because you're a fan of Landman or something. It's, you know, Taylor Sheridan shows.

So we really want to surround ourselves with a good neighborhood of content, and ESPN's a perfect example because they have A-list sports. When you get adjacent to that, it's a promise."

What Shapiro's comments mean for WWE

Shapiro's remarks make it clear that TKO wants WWE's current presentation, including celebrity crossover, wider media placement and a more openly corporate approach to the business, to be seen as part of the same growth strategy.

For WWE fans, that matters because the comments tie the company's creative direction directly to the larger business plan around Raw, SmackDown, NXT and premium live events. Shapiro also openly acknowledged the tradeoff, WWE may be reaching a bigger audience, but some longtime fans could be frustrated by rising costs and the need to follow the product across several platforms.

Sources

As reported by NoDQ.