Tony Khan’s $6.9 billion bid in 2023 to buy WWE surfaces

In 2023, the world was left stunned when WWE announced itself for sale. Endeavor emerged as one of the potential buyers when former chairman and CEO Vince McMahon stepped down due to misconduct investigations. Shortly after in Apr. 2023, Endeavor and WWE officially announced the deal. The new deal saw Endeavor hold a 51% stake in TKO, with WWE’s shareholders having a 49% stake. TKO Group Holdings was the new UFC-WWE merger.

However, in a new report now shared by Brandon Thurston for Post Wrestling, a surprising revelation has come to light. According to court filings, courtesy of an ongoing shareholder lawsuit revealed that Base 10, a company backed by AEW President Tony Khan, placed a bid worth $6.9 billion on WWE when it was up for sale in 2023. Base 10 is also surprisingly the same company that owns AEW. The lawsuit questions WWE’s 2023 sale and suggests that it limited fair competition from other bidders.

Furthermore, Thurston pointed out that Base 10’s documented offer was the least expensive of the four, coming in at $6.9 billion. In comparison, Endeavor topped the list with $8.5 billion, with Liberty Media following at $8.5 to $8.9 billion, and KKR at $8 billion to $8.7 billion.

The court documents, which were unsealed and originally filed in Nov. 2023, indicated that Base 10, in addition to TKO, Liberty Media, and KKR, was an interested party. While Tony Khan was not mentioned in the filings, the documents read that it was “the owner of All Elite Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion that plainly would enjoy significant synergies with WWE.”

Interestingly, it should also be noted that while the complaints showed Base 10 as AEW’s owner, exact legal filings had a separate Khan family entity, Beatnik Investments LLC, as the parent company of All Elite Wrestling.

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