Kamran

From Reuters:

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Silver Lake to take Endeavor private in deal valuing entertainment firm at $13 bln

Private equity firm Silver Lake, the biggest investor in Endeavor Group Holdings (EDR.N), opens new tab, on Tuesday said it had agreed to a deal to take the talent and entertainment agency private for $13 billion.

As part of the deal, Endeavor stockholders will receive $27.50 per share in cash, representing a premium of 55% to the closing price of $17.72 before Silver Lake in October said it was working to take the company private.

Shares were hovering at $25.94 in afternoon trading.

Silver Lake is the largest shareholder in Endeavor, owning about 31% of the outstanding shares as of Dec. 31, according to LSEG data.

Silver Lake late last year said it was working to take Endeavor private, after the entertainment giant announced that it had begun a review to explore alternatives that better value the company.

Endeavor had then said that it was evaluating strategic options, but would not consider a sale or disposition of its majority interest in TKO Group Holdings (TKO.N), opens new tab, a separately traded company whose assets include WWE and Ultimate Fighting Championship.

 

2 hours ago, mim731 said:

Obviously Mone is coming in tonight, but something about the blatant way it's been done makes me think there's a secondary, maybe less expected surprise in he offing too, possibly a return. Not sure why, but as it's been so overt I can see there being something more going on tonight. 

TK has kept saying it's going to 'one of the biggest nights ever in AEW', that could be the usual guff but I'm hoping we get some announcement on their TV situation as their contract was meant to run out this year. There have been rumours about the tie-in with HBO Max for ages, I wonder if it could be something along those lines.

FYI - For any AEW+ subscribers, I got an email offering an AEW PPV bundle pack again, it's for Dynasty, Double or Nothing and Forbidden Door. It's $49.99, shows up as £34.90 on the app via Roku.

Whilst I'm here, matches announced for tomorrow are:

On 2/29/2024 at 11:25 PM, NavigatorFan said:

If you are ordering the event on Triller TV it is better to log on to the web based version as you are charged in $ rather than £.

I have AEW+ so the event was £19.99 on the app but $19.99 on the website. Paid by PayPal and it came out to £16.52

I've got AEW+ too and watch Triller via a Roku stick, I bought it through the Triller app and it was £13.99.

On 2/16/2024 at 9:27 PM, JLM said:

Collision 10/02/24

Aminata hasn't had a bad performance on this run yet. I also learned that she speaks six languages and played football growing up. Kevin Kelly still isn't my favourite announcer but I do appreciate his research. 

Not sure if this has been posted before but I found this on AEW's youtube, a lot more of her backstory here:

For those that subscribe to AEW Plus via Fite/Triller TV, I got the below email today:

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Your AEW Plus will change from $6.99/month to $7.99/month on 01/16/2024.

You can continue your subscription at the new price by clicking on Continue Subscription button below.

If you do not update your subscription, it will not renew on 01/16/2024.

They did pretty well with the buyrate, although they need to have some decent build next year with a few marquee matches.

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> ALL IN HITS 200,000 BUYS

- AEW President Tony Khan said in a media call promoting Full Gear that the All In pay-per-view in London, England drew 200,000 buys, which is the second-best number in the company's history. The number is just 5,000 buys shy of the record, which is All Out in 2021 which featured the first match of CM Punk. The 200,000 number is an even-more fantastic number when you take into consideration that the show started early afternoon on the East Coast and in the morning on the West Coast. AEW returns to Wembley Stadium in August 2024 for another All In show. Tickets for this show go on sale on December 1.

 

(Source: Wrestling-Online Newsletter)

58 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

Slightly off topic, but I’d love to see Athena get nominated too. She’s having the run of her life, even though basically no one has seen it thanks to it being in ROH.

That reminds me, on Zero Hour during her match, JR said something along the lines of 'I keep waiting for Athena to get on a red hot roll, she's got all the athletic ability' before Nigel makes him aware she's the ROH Women's champion and the most dominant ROH Women's champion.

Easily one of the most memorable moments has to be the whole 'David's dead' episode.

Some background, David Guest is in the house but has been unwell...and Angie (David Bowie's ex-wife) has just been told David Bowie has died, this follows:

I thought this might be a slog after All In, Dynamite, Rampage, Collision and Payback but I absolutely loved it. I even watched Zero Hour and thought those 3 matches were okay/good too.

On the subject of Danielson, the below is from the WO Newsletter, which makes the match even more impressive: 

I was a little worried beforehand that we wouldn't be able to see anything from our seats and that the screens would be too small. However, it was too bad at all.

My niece/nephews had a few older fans ask them about their signs in the stadium and on the train which was very nice, you could see how happy they were that people said they liked them.

My only issue is I was expecting this to be a one-off....now they're coming back next year, they all want to go again 😀

https://twitter.com/Bowens_Official/status/1696209064873611381?s=20

24 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

Any truth to some muppet asking Karen Jarrett who was better in bed between Kurt & JJ during the fanfest Q&A? 

https://twitter.com/thechrisgardnr/status/1695427866329051464?s=20

1 hour ago, Michael_3165 said:

The general policy is if you bring a sign and hold it up in front of someone you're pretty awful as a human being.

I don't know about the venue rules, though I've been to a few shows and some twat has put a sign up through the show and ruined the whole night. 

That's just my view though. That said taking your siblings kids is cool, wish more uncles and aunts would do it.

I don't think any of them will bother holding the signs for long before they get tired  We've got an aisle seat on the pitch so I'm hoping we can position it so it doesn't block the view behind us. If it does block anyone's view I really don't think they'll be that fussed about not waving them around.

They've been to Hobbycraft...we'll see what they end up with 😀

Does anyone know if there is any policy around signs for tomorrow? I'm taking my niece and nephews and they want to make a few signs...

I didn't want to start a new thread so thought I'd post it here, taken from the Wrestling-Online Newsletter:

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> WRESTLEMANIA 40 SECOND PRE-SALE SEES PRICE INCREASES

The second WrestleMania 40 pre-sale went live this morning on Ticketmaster.com and in a replay of yesterday, tickets went out lightning quick despite the very expensive prices. The two-day combo offer didn't see much new sections added to it with the only tickets remaining priced between $3,000 and $10,000. The single-day tickets were even more pricier as it looks like most of the tickets were labeled official platinum, even those in the upper decks where you will need binoculars to watch the ring. Single-day ticket prices were double that of the original combo tickets, with the cheapest seats being in the 200 Level for $220 each plus fees and tax. Club-level seats started at $300 each plus fees and tax whereas the other sections started from $600 and up. Ringside for either night were $8,500 and you needed to buy them in pairs. A ringside seat had an additional fee of $1,965 and two ringside tickets together, including everything, were going for $20,930.

 

I know they'll still sell those ringside tickets but those prices are crazy!

22 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

£15 on FITE, even cheaper if you buy it through Roku

https://www.fite.tv/watch/aew-all-in-2023/2pdhf/

I got this email from Fite today:

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We're revving up the excitement for the biggest event in wrestling history! As a thank you for being part of the AEW Plus family, you'll receive a special 20% discount on the PPV price with your subscription!

Order now and get ready for history in the making: Sunday, August 27th LIVE on FITE PPV.

The regular price on Fite is $19.99 however this is reduced to $15.99 with the discount. Buying through Roku is £10.99, still cheaper there as you said.

IYH 16: Canadian Stampede is my all-time favourite show, great card with a fantastic crowd:

From the Wrestling-Online Newsletter:

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> ALL IN SET TO COST $50 ON PPV

- Multiple industry insiders are reporting that All In will indeed be a pay-per-view and will cost $50, just a week before AEW presents another pay-per-view, All Out. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer wrote that Comcast will be carrying the show as a pay-per-view while Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics confirmed that DirecTV is also airing it as a pay-per-view on channel 106. AEW President Tony Khan has so far refused to give out details on how the record-breaking event will air apart from the fact that it will be available for everyone to see, albeit leaving out the price part. All In is also scheduled to air in select theaters nationwide promoted by Joe Hand Promotions. FITE.TV, which usually airs AEW pay-per-views for international viewers, does not have a public entry for the show yet. With All In less than a month away, an official confirmation of All In's airing is yet to be announced by AEW.

 

Their regular PPVs cost $49.99 so about the same however it's a bit much when you have 2 PPVs in the same week unless they can do some kind of combo deal.

On 7/21/2023 at 7:00 PM, Ronnie said:

Here's a fairly recent shot, the ĉaption to which is: "This looks like a nice place to work. It'd be a shame if you couldn't get any done."

 

I have a similar problem...although I don't own these cats, they belong to my niece however her dad didn't want them in the house, so they've stayed at mine (only next door). It's been nearly 2 years now...

I never wanted any pets but now it's got to the point where I can't imagine not seeing them every day.

10 hours ago, air_raid said:

I'm not arsed myself about ratings as a metric these days but if people want to celebrate something doing a decent number, it needs to be quantified better than "in recent memory" to mean anything.

In the Wrestling-Online Newsletter they also said: "Dave Meltzer of the Observer also added that last week's Smackdown topped all of network television for the whole week, something that has never been done before in the history of professional wrestling."

More from the WON:

I can't see them bringing WrestleMania over here. Currently, they're getting the various states in the US to bid to host WrestleMania and WWE are being offered millions of dollars in tax breaks/credits for the privilege. The UK would need to offer something better, I know Cardiff did something similar with the support of their government which gave us Clash at the Castle but I can't see our government doing anything like that. 

14 hours ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

Is her voice just not that strong, because compared to everyone else it sounded like Mae's mic was turned down and I'm sure it wasn't. 

It sounded worse in the semi-final:

From the Wrestling-Online Newsletter:

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> TOP WWE EXECS TO GET $169 MILLION IN COMPENSATION AFTER SALE

- In new filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, WWE revealed what sum its top executives will receive as a compensation once the Endeavor takeover is complete.

Chief Human Resources Officer Suzette Ramirez-Carr will get a cool $3,356,150. WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon, who will be the new Chairman of the Board of the new merged WWE/UFC company, will receive $16,027,770. Chief Financial Officer Frank Riddick III is one of four individuals who will get a larger sum than Vince McMahon and will get $20,117,225. Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque will get an additional $25,625,995 in his bank account. Levesque will continue in his role following the merger. Chief Global Television Production and Executive Producer Kevin Dunn will receive $31,880,058 and hopefully less camera shakes moving forward. The biggest winner by far is Chief Executive Officer Nick Khan. Khan will get a whopping $72,023,451 once the merger is complete. Khan will be WWE President once the Endeavor move is done as Ari Emanuel will serve as CEO. 

Stephanie McMahon, the former co-CEO and Chairwoman who quit the company and resigned from her board position following her father's return, will get absolutely nothing. The SEC filing states that McMahon "is not a current employee of WWE. She does not hold any outstanding WWE equity awards and is no longer party to arrangements pursuant to which she could receive cash or severance payments and benefits in connection with the Transactions, including the merger." If any of the executives mentioned are terminated, Vince McMahon and Nick Khan will receive 2x the base salary, Levesque and Riddick will get 1.5x of the base of their salary, and Ramirez-Carr will receive 1x of the base salary. Dunn is entitled to receive 12 months of base salary continuation.

 

That's a nice bonus 

On 5/2/2023 at 2:44 PM, Matthew said:

If it meant going, I’d obviously do it, just definitely not ideal.

I’d been panicking all morning, but you reckon it’ll be alright without the coach being used, yeah?

If you're still wondering, the below was on my ticketmaster ticket confirmation email (I didn't include coach travel):