Vince McMahon and Ari Emanuel discuss WWE acquisition and UFC merger

In their very first public appearance together following the acquisition, Ari Emanuel and Vince McMahon talked to CNBC about their new mega deal which will combine the UFC and the WWE into one publicly-traded company with a value of more than $12 billion.

Emanuel put over Vince big time for his vision, calling himself the luckiest guy in the world right now for being able to make this transaction.

Asked why Vince is staying, Ari said he was going to bodyslam Vince if he were leaving and Vince did admit that he was ready to walk out but Emanuel prevented that from happening. Vince said that it did not take that much convincing for him to stay on.

“I love what I do. It’s all my life, it’s my passion,” Vince said when he described WWE.

Vince said that this transaction would have happened regardless of the sexual misconduct scandal and the scandal didn’t bring forward the transaction date.

Emanuel said that Endeavor paid a “little bit more” for control premium but with cost-savings coming along with WWE’s TV rights coming up and other sponsorships, he said this will be UFC 2.0 in terms of success.

Asked what they will do if they disagree over something with Ari as CEO and Vince as Chairman, Vince jokingly said that they will get in the ring.

“If we disagree on something we want to do, guess what, we won’t do it,” Emanuel added.

He made it clear that Endeavor will not get into creative as they don’t do that with UFC either and both Vince and Dana White will be in charge of that.

“Do you plan to be involved creatively?” host Scott Wapner asked Vince. “At a higher level, yes. In the weeds, can’t do that,” Vince replied.

A new company name will soon be announced and Emanuel said that they plan to be on the New York Stock Exchange within the next four to six months.