TKO executive says WWE “resized” pay for wrestlers after making new media deals

While speaking at the Goldman Sachs Conference, TKO COO Mark Shapiro was asked about balancing talent expenses with the marketing and promotional support provided to talent in WWE and UFC. In his response, Shapiro stated the following…

“Let’s talk about the pay for the superstars and our fighters first. What I would tell you is post our new deals with ESPN on WWE and with Paramount+, CBS, Peacock, Sky with UFC, and even a little bit post-Raw with Netflix, we did resize our fighter and superstar pay composition. That is baked into our numbers. So there will be no further adverse impact with regard to how that plays out or divvies out. We’re confident with where we sit.

We have 600 fighters, as an example, in our stable at the UFC. We do, to your point, really rely on development. Keep in mind that when you look at WWE, 75% of the superstars come from NXT. So they’re starting in our development league and going all the way up. So pipeline is very important to our strategy.

On the UFC front, we’ve really capitalized on the investments of our performance centers in Mexico City and Vegas, and particularly China. We’re really getting real traction. So that’s a big part of our strategy. It will continue to be a big part of our strategy, and we will continue to be aggressive in other monetization opportunities for both our superstars and our UFC fighters with regard to advertiser deals, marketing partnerships, bonuses through the fight card in terms of finishes and Fight of the Night.

What you see is you see the best of the best signing up and lining up to be a part of the UFC and to be a part of WWE. So that’s something we always watch out for and we want to make sure that we’re really spreading the opportunities, but the strategy’s working. Our margins will continue to expand.” (quote courtesy of Jeremy Lambert)

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