5 Companies That Would Want To Buy WWE

5. Mass Media

A very natural partner for WWE would be a Media Conglomerate. Ideally, WWE would want to be aligned with a company that provides internet access, run cable & telecommunication systems and programs television channels. While most wrestling companies were founded by promoters and charismatic wrestlers, there's actually a significant history of television channels starting, supporting and sustaining wrestling promotions. For instance, WCW (World Championship Wrestling) was bought by Ted Turner/Turner Broadcasting in November 1988. American Ring of Honor was sold to Sinclair Broadcasting in May 2011. Japanese promotion IWE (International Wrestling Enterprise) was run by a different TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) in 1968. In 2014, AAA is launching their American presence (television show, and future live tours) based on a partnership with new English-language Latino-focused television network El Rey. Honestly, it's impossible to be considered a true major player unless you have a national television contract. The death knell for WCW and ECW was the cessation of their television contracts. Similarly, the beginning of the end for wacky wrestling company Hustle and MMA organization Pride FC came when they lost their television coverage with Fuji Television (when it was revealed that promoter Dream Stage Entertainment had links to a major yakuza organization). Pride FC sold their assets to Zuffa (UFC's owners) a year later. There's a lot of natural fit: - Television Channels (Weekly Programming) = Domestic TV Rights are currently hovering $100M. Owning the product outright could prevent the wild escalation of product costs. One network could lock up the exclusive WWE rights in perpetuity for a fraction of what the lifetime contract would cost. - Multi-channel Video Programming Distributors (PPV) = Cable companies cut of domestic WWE PPV was roughly $40M in 2013. With the launch of the WWE Network, WWE is attempting to prevent PPV money from being split with MVPDs. Whether other MVPDs would continue to "play nice" with WWE or whether they'd stop carrying their PPVs all together is hard to say. - Internet (WWE Network) = Instead of WWE cutting out the Comcast and Time Warner Cables of the world from their cut of PPV pie, owning the WWE would enable the owner to both profit off the over-the-top model, as well as would provide an excellent gateway to bring the WWE Network as Premium Channel or Video on Demand service back to Cable. With lingering questions around Net Neutrality, theoretically the media conglomerate that owned WWE and controlled internet pipelines might be able to "push" the WWE Network service. Additionally, even a questionable segment such as WWE Studios makes a lot more sense when WWE is part of a larger media conglomerate. When you look at the WWE's most successful movies (almost a back-handed complement) were things such as 2006's The Marine starring John Cena or most recently Christmas Bounty starring the Miz. Depending on the partnership, there's many natural fits: Scooby Doo! Wrestlemania Mystery on Cartoon Network, replays of See No Evil on Chiller, Leprechaun: Origins on Showtime, the French-language Queens of the Ring on IFC, The Call on HBO and Disney's Touchstone Pictures creating the remake of The Fall Guy starring The Rock. Similarly, the WWE Magazine would find a solid home in a publishing