WWE acknowledges AEW, NJPW, and more as "competitors" in SEC statement

WWE's merger with Endeavor to form TKO Group Holdings has been completed, and things are moving fast for the sports & entertainment megacorp now. In addition to a major round of layoffs this week, the Stamford-based company has issued a registration statement to the SEC detailing, among other things, the risks to its business.

This is standard for corporate mergers, but it's interesting that among the risk factors listed for TKO Group Holdings were professional wrestling competitors AEW, NJPW, IMPACT, ROH, and others.

Under the "Risk Factors" section of its statement, TKO mentioned periods of reduced consumer spending, such as during the Covid-19 pandemic, its reliance on television partners, and the competitive world of MMA and professional wrestling, which the statement referred to as a "rapidly changing and increasingly fragmented environment."

Check out an excerpt from TKO Group Holdings' statement below:

"We face competition from a variety of other domestic and foreign companies. We also face competition from alternative providers of the content and events that we offer, including Bellator, M-1 Global, Professional Fighters League, Combate Global, Invicta FC, Cage Warriors, AMC Fight Nights, ONE Championship, Rizin Fighting Federation, Absolute Championship Akhmat, Pancrase, Caged Steel, Eagle Fighting Championship, KSW, Extreme Fighting Championship, All Elite Wrestling, Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-Wrestling and from other forms of media, entertainment and leisure activities in a rapidly changing and increasingly fragmented environment."

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WWE Hall of Famer believes Tony Khan wants to see himself as Vince McMahon

AEW has received a lot of scrutiny since it was founded in 2019. Although it was billed as an alternative product to mainstream wrestling, the company has been compared to WCW, ECW, and others.

WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff believes that Tony Khan wants to see himself as Vince McMahon, Paul Heyman, or even Bischoff himself during their respective companies' periods of success.

Speaking on a recent episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, Bischoff opined that the AEW President needs recognition so badly that he's not allowing anyone to help him:

"Tony wants to see himself, so badly, as the Vince McMahon of WWE or the Paul Heyman of ECW or even the Eric Bischoff of WCW — when it was successful. Tony wants or needs that recognition so badly that — whether it’s because he’s so immersed in other things or if he’s just driven by his ego — he’s not making those decisions [to delgate] or choices to let other people [help him]," said Eric Bischoff.

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