Earlier this week, UFC parent company Endeavor officially announced a deal to merge the organization with WWE to create a more than $20 billion company. Dan Le Batard believes the deal is the reason Endeavor never made a public stance after UFC President Dana White publicly assaulted his wife.
McMahon utilized WWE funds to silence allegations of sexual misconduct from employees. In total, McMahon paid his accusers more than $19 million for their silence. He subsequently announced his retirement from the organization in July of last year before returning and re-electing himself as the company’s Executive Chairman in January.
During The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz Tuesday, the former ESPN Radio host claimed the public controversies from Vince McMahon likely prohibited Endeavor from reprimanding White.
“I try to abstain from just the eviscerating of human character. Vince McMahon? Truly horrible…He’s back in power. He’s running WrestleMania,” Le Batard lamented. “Vince McMahon is back in power, and maybe you don’t care. Maybe you think it’s a small thing. But now you know why Endeavor didn’t comment on Dana White. Now you know. They couldn’t have two of them in a cage while the deal was being done. Because the deal wasn’t done yesterday. They couldn’t jeopardize the WWE deal. The $9 billion deal that now goes totally dirty, run by two kings who have no consequences for anything.
“I’m sure it’ll be a profitable great business and streaming. How can it not be? But what’s running both organizations and the labor being grounded into the fighters using their actual body just thrown into the mill here, so they can make their money so the two awful ones without consequences can make their money? Maybe it doesn’t bother you. Maybe you just want it to be fake sports, wrestling, and mixed martial arts. I’ll enjoy the fight in Miami on Saturday. Like I can make moral grandstands. I can raise my face and be infuriated, but I’ll be a hypocrite like I’ll be a hypocrite on what I’m watching where the party is.”
Stugotz agreed that many viewers likely don’t care what happens inside the company. He believed their only concern was that they’re entertained. Le Batard agreed before pleading for accountability for the new company’s leaders.
“Just don’t let it happen quietly. What’s happening at the top of that company, and what the men at the top of that company are accused of doing, and how they cash in any way because there are no consequences for them. Whether it’s rape allegations or video of you hitting your wife in public.”
