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Welcome to PWInsider.com's coverage of today's TKO Earnings call for the third quarter of 2026. I apologize for this not being live and ongoing but I had to attend to a family matter.
On the call are Mark Shapiro, Seth Zaslow, Andrew Schleimer were on the call.
Shapiro pointed out UFC's recent success of sellouts and their continued relationship with Skydance, formerly Paramount. He stated Raw was on Netflix's top ten globally twelve of the last 14 weeks and is now available on Netflix' in Japan. He touted the forthcoming John Cena Classic as well.
They ran through the financials of the release before opening the lines for investor media.
They were asked about still running Saudi Arabia given the current issues. Shapiro categorized the risk as "extremely minimal," stating that TKO has consistently staged flawless events in the region. "We are all systems go," Shapiro state.
They stated they have received half of the site fee for next year's Wrestlemania 43 from Saudi Arabia and financially, have no risks. They would receive the remaining balance from the Kingdom for Mania even if the show needed to be move to a backup contingency city domestically. Shapiro said they were not concerned.
Regarding WrestleMania 43 in Saudi Arabia, Shapiro assured investors the show faces no additional risk. He revealed TKO has already received half of the site fee upfront and would still receive the remaining balance even if the event had to be relocated to one of their U.S. contingency plans. "Frankly, we're not concerned," he added.
They were asked about attendance dipping from last year to this year's Mania and Summerslam events. Shapiro said the declines were expected, partially due to running Las Vegas for the second year in a row and then by the Canadian-United States issues which hurt tourism from Canada into the States. He said that when they decided to run Summerslam in Minneapolis, they did not expect to match the levels of what a stadium show in say, the NYC market, could bring the company.
It was noted the Barclays Center event in NYC this week was the company's highest grossing event there to date.
They have had meetings to discuss strategies with Skydance to help maximize UFC's partnership, noting CBS, HBO and TNT could destinations for UFC events.
WWE President Nick Khan is in discussions to run Tokyo, Japan in 2027. Since they have toured there before, one would think they meant a televised event.
They were asked abour potential issues with Wrestlemania 32 sponsors and attendance, since the show is coming from Saudi Arabia. Schleimer said there were no issues with corporate partners. Mania in Saudi would have an earlier start time due to the time difference.
The pushed the Disney partnership big as well.
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