TKO Group Holdings

, a third-generation wrestling promoter and co-founder of Titan Sports, Inc., originally served as Executive Chairman of TKO Group Holdings. WWE was founded in 1953 as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC), a Northeastern territory of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The CWC was run by Vincent J. McMahon, son of boxing and wrestling promoter Jess McMahon. Following a booking dispute over CWC wrestler Buddy Rogers and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the CWC left the NWA and became the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in January 1963, and by April 25, 1963, Rogers was declared the first WWWF World Heavyweight Champion. The WWWF was renamed to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979; the WWF made its final departure from the NWA in 1983. The legal entity, which was originally named Titan Sports, Inc., was incorporated on February 21, 1980, in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts; it was reincorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law in 1987. Titan Sports was co-founded by Vincent K. McMahon, Vincent J.'s son, and his wife Linda. It acquired Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd., the holding company for the WWF, in 1982. After buying the WWF, Vince McMahon expanded the promotion by overturning the NWA's territory system and holding events around the United States and the world which were televised on a global basis. As part of the 1980s professional wrestling boom, the WWF began to capitalize on the popularity of rising star Hulk Hogan after he defeated The Iron Sheik at Madison Square Garden on January 23, 1984 to capture the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. On March 31, 1985, the WWF held WrestleMania I, the first edition of WrestleMania, which went on to become WWF's flagship event. Initially broadcast on closed-circuit television, WrestleMania became a pay-per-view the following year, as the WWF expanded its pay-per-view offerings and became known as a pioneer for the relatively new distribution format. In January 1993, the WWF introduced Monday Night Raw as its live weekly episodic television show. The WWF became a publicly traded company in August 1999, launching an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. The company's status as the world's premier professional wrestling organization was cemented by its acquisition of the assets of World Championship Wrestling in 2001 following the Monday Night War. Titan Sports was renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. in 1999, and then World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. in 2002 after a legal dispute with the World Wildlife Fund. Since 2011, the company has branded itself solely with the initials WWE, though the legal name did not change at the time. , executive chair and CEO of TKO Group Holdings WWE's majority owner was its executive chairman, third-generation wrestling promoter Vince McMahon, who retained a 38.6% ownership of the company's outstanding stock and 81.1% of the voting power before the merger. The closure of the merger saw McMahon's voting power and stock ownership dramatically decrease after selling the majority of his stocks. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), initially under the ownership of the Semaphore Entertainment Group, was founded by American businessman Art Davie and Brazilian martial artist Rorion Gracie with their partners in WOW Promotions. UFC 1 was held in November 12, 1993, at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver. The purpose of the early ultimate fighting competitions was to identify the most effective martial art in a contest with minimal rules and no weight classes between competitors of different fighting disciplines. In subsequent events, more rigorous rules were created and fighters began adopting effective techniques from more than one discipline, which indirectly helped create a separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts (MMA). In April 1995, after UFC 5, Davie and Gracie sold their remaining interest in the UFC to the Semaphore Entertainment Group and disbanded WOW Promotions. In 2001, Zuffa, a sports promotion company headed by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, purchased the UFC from the Semaphore Entertainment Group. Zuffa's ownership led to a growth period for the company and the sport of MMA in general; the UFC's global leadership in the sport led to Zuffa buying the assets of the Pride Fighting Championships in 2007 and the Strikeforce promotion in 2011 (among other MMA promotions). In July 2016, Zuffa was sold to a group led by Endeavor, then known as William Morris Endeavor (WME–IMG), including Silver Lake Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and MSD Capital, for US$4.025 billion. In 2017, WME–IMG changed its holding name to Endeavor. In 2021, Endeavor bought out Zuffa's other owners at a valuation of $1.7 billion. ==History==