Eric Bischoff comments on recent suggestions that Vince McMahon could step away from WWE.
The 78 year old is someone who is not your normal human being. After undergoing serious spinal surgery just a few months ago, Vince has been in the gym and animated during public appearances.
During WrestleMania 39 weekend, the sale of WWE was officially announced as Vince had accepted an offer from Endeavor to buy the WWE, with Endeavor planning to merge the WWE and UFC into one 21 billion dollar company. Now, the merger with the UFC to form a new company, TKO Group has finalized as the company will now start trading on the stock market.
Speaking on Strictly Business, Bischoff shared his thoughts on the WWE/UFC merger and Vince McMahon’s place in it.
“I would never bet against Vince McMahon in terms of Vince doing what Vince wants to do. My instinct and a little bit of experience suggests to me that Vince doesn’t want to walk away, this is Vince’s baby. This is a part of Vince’s family. I don’t see him walking from it. Nothing has ever happened in my professional lifetime that suggested to me that Vince wants to do something other than what he’s currently doing. He doesn’t have hobbies, he doesn’t appear to have much of a social life. He works like a maniac, he lives to work and he works to live. I don’t think Vince could be happy doing anything else other than what he’s doing. You know, some of the stock price issues could be a reflection of a lot of the news that we’ve read over the past couple of days about the pending litigation and the criminal charges and all of the crap that’s floating around out there. Personally, I don’t think any of that sticks. It’s a lot of nasty noise and a lot of uncomfortable information, but I don’t think at the end of it all it will come to fruition or mean anything, Vince will be just fine in that regard. I don’t know that, I just feel that. But, I don’t see him wanting to do anything else. If they’re going to take him out of there, it will be kicking and screaming, it won’t be him saying it’s time to go,”
“If Vince McMahon walked away this afternoon, cashed in his 28 million stocks, whatever he’s got, took his three billion dollars, bought a yacht and floated around the Caribbean for the rest of his life, I do not see it having any adverse impact on WWE, and that’s a credit to Vince. Vince has done such a great job building that organization, surrounding himself with the right people, on the creative side of the business, business side of the business. Certainly now with Ari Emanuel and Endeavor behind it, the quality of leadership and talent in WWE right now is amazing. I wish a lot of other major companies had the same type of leadership in management,”
Eric Bischoff
We will have to wait and see how the wrestling business will continue to change and evolve with the takeover being completed and TKO Group having control of two juggernauts in the UFC and WWE.
Time will tell if McMahon will be able to make it to his goal of 120 years old in the next 40 years.
H/T to Fightful for transcription
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