In a move which if it happened would have changed the course of wrestling forever, AEW and Tony Khan submitted a bid for WWE back in 2023 when the company went up for sale.
Newly unredacted court filings stemming from a shareholder lawsuit have confirmed as much. Reported first by Brandon Thurston of Post Wrestling, Khan – through his entity “Base 10” offered up $6.9 billion for WWE which fell well short of the other three bids listed: Liberty Media – $8.5 billion to $8.9 billion, KKR (a private equity) – $8.7 billion and Endeavor at an all-stock offer of $8.5 billion which ultimately won the battle.
Khan wasn’t specifically named in the documents but an excerpt all but confirmed his identity: “the owner of All Elite Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion that plainly would enjoy significant synergies with WWE.”
Thurston also reported that the top three offers all got access to a data room “where they had access to nonpublic information about WWE — a standard practice at that stage of a major M&A process” but that Base 10 didn’t get the same treatment, speculating that it was either due to its lower bid or the fact that Khan was running rival AEW, or perhaps both.
The ongoing lawsuit stems from the sale of WWE itself as shareholders are arguing how the process went down with suggestions that former WWE CEO Vince McMahon awarded Endeavor the winning bid due to the fact that they were the only offer that guaranteed his continued presence within WWE’s leadership team.