On the latest episode of Something to Wrestle With, JBL, a successful financial analyst outside of the ring, offered his opinion on WWE’s decision to go public in 1999. The former WWE Champion described the move as a “vanity IPO” that was more about changing the public perception of the wrestling business than raising capital.
“A lot of that was just a vanity IPO,” JBL stated. “A lot of reasons you go public is because you want to access the debt markets. WWE had no debt, and so there was not a lot of reason to go public, except to be able to put an equation on your worth.”
He argued that for Vince McMahon, taking the company public was the culmination of a long battle to legitimize the industry. “Vince was able to take this, coming from the 70s and 80s and 90s, you’re fighting the territories, you’re fighting in bingo parlors… this negative look about the wrestling business. You have a chance to take this thing public,” he explained.
JBL, who was part of the promotional “road show” for the IPO with Linda McMahon, said that changing the company’s image was McMahon’s primary motivation. “I thought that was one of the things that was most important to Vince, was getting that image out there,” he said. “There was so much about image that Vince was trying to upgrade wrestling. All of a sudden, a publicly traded company, we’re an entertainment company. We’re not just a wrestling company… It just changed the dynamic of how people looked at the WWE.”
WWE’s IPO took place in October 1999. In 2023, the company merged with Endeavor to form TKO Group Holdings, a publicly traded entity now valued in the billions.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Something to Wrestle With with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
