WWE and Hollywood icon Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has been appointed to the Board of Directors in TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of both WWE and UFC.
TKO was formed by Endeavour after their purchase of WWE, to merge it with MMA’s UFC, creating a public trading company worth over $21 billion.
Now with the eight-time WWE champion on the board, this could further shake the landscape of wrestling and combat sports itself.
WHAT THEY SAID
TKO announced the news via a press release picking out Dwayne’s “significant experience identifying and cultivating revenue generating media rights, live events, sponsorship, licensing, and social media opportunities.”
Endeavour CEO Ari Emmanuel added: “I am thrilled to partner with Dwayne and welcome his immense talent to TKO’s Board. Dwayne brings an incredible track record of creating content and building globally recognized consumer brands, and he will play a key role in realizing our ambitions for TKO.”
Former CEO of WWE and executive chairman of TKO Vince McMahon also celebrated the appointment: “Very few people on the planet understand the convergence of sports, entertainment, media, and business, like Rock.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE ROCK
The Rock recently returned to fans’ TV screens on the ‘Day One’ edition of Monday Night Raw in a confrontation with WWE superstar Jinder Mahal.
After taking him out, he subtly called out record-breaking WWE Undisputed Universal champion and cousin Roman Reigns which sent shockwaves through social media channels.
Dwayne was then asked about a potential match with Reigns down the line on Stephen A. Smith’s ‘First Take’ show.
“I’m a long gamer. I like to build, what this is, if myself and Roman Reigns were to main event Wrestlemania and I mean this very respectfully. We could put on the greatest and biggest ‘Mania’ of all time,” he said.
As for his UFC involvement, he appeared at UFC 244 for a press conference in 2019 to present the ‘BMF Title’ which was won by Jorge Masvidal.
Now he’s present on the Board of TKO, it might not be long until the People’s Champion turns up near an Octagon again.
