A Tale of Two Turki TKO Pressers: Triple H towers over Dana White

Dana White's Cold Turki policy and flop sweat won't last much longer.

We all instinctively knew that Ari Emanuel & Mark Shapiro would eventually sell out TKO assets to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The only question was when and how.

This was officially the week that TKO married Turki Alalshikh in Las Vegas. The only problem is that Dana White didn’t seem all that interested in acting as an Elvis impersonator to marry these two world powers.

Viva Las Vegas, baby.

Ari Emanuel’s fingerprints are all over TKO’s “for sale” signs to the House of Saud, and it was Nick Khan who executed the agreements. Mark Shapiro parachuted into Vegas to do his public relations lap. Triple H and friends were prepared to do the hard sell with great cheerfulness.

Strangely, Dana White decided to be the odd man out of this TKO celebration of crony capitalism.

This was the week WME pitched the prospects of a Riyadh Comedy Festival with Kevin Hart. How about Ari’s favorite passion project, tennis? Here’s a Six Kings tennis exhibition, made especially for Netflix.

But the pièce de résistance is the All-American crown of sports entertainment, Wrestlemania, which is headed for Riyadh in 2027.

Unlike the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford fight, Wrestlemania is a very desired and shared object of interest for both Turki Alalshikh and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

As this famous Athletic/New York Times profile on Turki revealed, WWE was a very big part of the cultural upbringing for those running the Kingdom. They idolized Vince McMahon and certainly seemed to take political and financial cues from Mr. McMahon.

Which makes it all too funny to see Mark Shapiro so easily sell out a piece of classic Americana for a low, low price rumored to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mark Shapiro trashed Vince McMahon as not being the Billionaire Businessman he was all cracked up to be. Mark can now thank Vince for creating TKO’s most prestigious and desirable asset to sell out to Turki & MBS.

I can’t wait to see Turki & MBS book Vince McMahon in a very prominent role for Wrestlemania 43. You know it’s going to happen.

He who has the gold makes the rules. Nobody understands this principle better than carnies in professional wrestling.

In a sparsely populated room at the Fontainebleau hotel in Las Vegas on Friday afternoon, there was Triple H’s WWE crew presenting Turki Alalshikh as a global visionary of combat sports.

With the assistance of a sleazy used car salesman and current parody of his former self, Joe Tessitore emceeing this joyous festivity, watching Triple H lather up Turki as a caretaker of a future Wrestlemania was nothing short of appallingly magnificent business.

"But today, we are here to talk about what's next in the legacy of Wrestlemania.

“And to help us announce this, I want to welcome a dear friend. We are currently in our eighth year of a long-term and fruitful partnership with the General Entertainment Authority, the GEA. This partnership, guided by His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, has seen historic firsts year after year. As we work together to collectively to reshape what's possible in global entertainment.

“Please welcome a man who is changing the face of sports and of entertainment, please welcome my friend and our partner His Excellency Turki Alalshikh."

Nobody else is even going to come close to offering a rumored $200M — or more — to buy Wrestlemania. And nobody else can close a deal like that except for Nick Khan. Mark Shapiro is all too happy to cosplay as a closer.

Shocked by that price tag estimation? You shouldn’t. On the week of 9/11 memorials, the House of Saud buying a key American sports & entertainment event is a bargain.

KSA bought a piece of America’s soul from some very soulless people.

Fan backlash begins — and TKO is ready to replace them

There are two sets of WWE fans who are really upset about Wrestlemania 43 going to Riyadh.

There are the American WWE fans who realize that a big part of their life is no longer theirs, culturally speaking. It’s no longer accessible financially to buy a $20,000 ticket to go see the circus, and it’s now no longer politically or culturally acceptable to emotionally connect with as a part of their lives.

Then there’s the European WWE fans who are rightfully bitter and angry that the first non-North American Wrestlemania show is headed to Riyadh instead of a location like Wembley Stadium. To this day, the 1992 SummerSlam event at Wembley is still regarded as one of the greatest WWE major events ever produced.

The European fans have demonstrated an insatiable appetite for supporting TKO product at outrageous prices. It’s not as if the customers haven’t demonstrated a willingness to play ball. But it doesn’t matter how much money you give to Ari Emanuel or Mark Shapiro; it’s never enough.

Fans are no longer the primary customer. We’ve been screaming about this for multiple years, and only now is the public learning that some customers are more equal than others.

The primary customer for TKO is Turki Alalshikh. It’s MBS. It’s Donald Trump. It’s Khaldoon Al Mubarak. It’s the Chinese Communist Party. World governments are now the co-promoters. Do you understand why we call “site fees” government contracts? Calling government contracts “site fees” is like calling the morphine drip “Comfort Care.”

Ari Emanuel’s vision of fight sport was to convert TKO into Boeing or Northrop Grumman.

Let’s just say that the announcement of Wrestlemania 43 going to Riyadh did not go over well on WWE’s YouTube channel. Here’s a sampling of comments right underneath their live stream video of Friday’s presser:

“France and London deserve Wrestlemania way more. Neither one of those places have held the talent hostage.”

“TKO execs bragging about pricing out families is sickening.”

“This is the definition of “What happened to the game that I loved.”

Here’s the thing WWE fans are about to learn. If they study the history of Endeavor-era ownership of UFC, they are about to discover that management is ready to replace them.

WWE fans protesting Wrestlemania 43 in Riyadh? Fine. Go away. And if you keep hanging around to protest, WME Group will find an avenue to chase you away. They will grind you into paste. Mark Shapiro is laughing in your face like The Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase.

What are you going to do about it? You aren’t going to do jack.

Endeavor loves the concept of a five-year life cycle for customers. Younger, richer, dumber, and more programmable. Just like American university recruitment. Take their money and load up students with debt. Turn universities into giant hedge funds like Harvard with their own investment arms. Pay no taxes. Sell out to the highest bidders in global governments.

And when it’s time, get rid of fans who hang around too long. The longer they hang around the circus and smarten up to the business model, they become liabilities instead of assets. Dispose of them.

This is the future for current WWE fans. You can and will be erased as a data point on a spreadsheet. There are five or more new data points that can be added. The cycle will repeat itself because the most important customers are not the fans. It’s those in political and financial power. You serve them, they don’t serve you.

And part of that Grand Bargain is understanding TKO’s new Turki Alalshikh policy.

No more Cold Turki for Dana White

With TKO and Turki Alalshikh finalizing their marriage vows, Ari Emanuel & Mark Shapiro have married the ultimate madman.

Great hustlers in the fight business know that they have to sell a dream. Promoters have to sell fights. Promoters have to sell the importance of the money mark paying the bills.

Turki Alalshikh wants a bunch of retired wrestling legends to return for his birthday party at Wrestlemania? C’mon down, Stone Cold. How about Rock vs. Roman Reigns in a fire match? How about Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels celebrating 30 years of Hell in a Cell with a rematch from their 1997 classic?

Triple H has done a masterful job of integrating himself as a corporate salesperson for TKO affairs. His Friday presser was a thing of beauty with Turki Alalshikh. He put Turki over with great gusto. No hesitation or fatigue, either. The kind of energy someone would have winning the lottery.

If Turki thinks he’s won life’s lottery, he’s not going to cause nearly the kind of trouble that he creates when he’s upset.

On the other side of the coin, there’s Dana White. In the biggest week of his life as a wannabe boxing promoter, Dana White is showing no glee in acting as Turki’s chauffeur in combat sports. He’s as distracted as someone trying to go back to work after their dog died.

Dana White can no longer consistently think on his feet as a promoter. Without a script to read for a social media video, the mental consistency and clarity to bullshit and hoodwink the public have vanished.

Nate Wilcox asked earlier this week what is up with Dana White and his abysmal performance as a promoter when he needed to deliver the showing of a lifetime for Canelo vs. Crawford.

The answer is as simple as: he’s over this. Dana is old. He’s tired of babysitting. He’s not going to get involved in hand-holding, literally or figuratively. Most importantly, Dana is no longer calling the shots. He’s not in charge of making key decisions. This brave new world of corporatism is something Dana doesn’t want or can’t understand and navigate.

That is incompatible with TKO’s new Turki policy. Turki Alalshikh is now their business partner on all matters.

Turki Alalshikh wants to permanently take over boxing. Part of that takeover requires selling the public that it’s a good and proper development.

As we saw in a media showdown on Thursday between reporter Sean Zittel and Dana White, UFC’s favorite Brand Ambassador can no longer answer straightforward questions. He’s the public face of a corporate campaign to dilute legal and marketplace protections for boxers and can’t answer a basic media inquiry with a lay-up.

SEAN ZITTEL: Dana, this fight as you said earlier in the week is set to be the third highest gate in combat sports history. Uh the second biggest gate you've promoted alongside Mayweather McGregor. The top five gates in combat sports history come in boxing and they come in the last 10 years.

So my question to you is why then do you want to make sweeping changes to the Muhammad Ali Reform Act that is meant to protect fighters to bring about a business model that currently has your company paying already paid out $375 million in antitrust lawsuits and has two potential pending class action lawsuits on the way as well.

DANA WHITE: Well, this is obviously a a long discussion. If you want to talk to me about that, set up an interview. This isn't about me and my business. It's about these two guys on Saturday night.

SEAN ZITTEL: My my followup, Dana, the earlier this week, the California State Athletic Commission had a he hearing about TKO trying to bring those changes to the Ali Act and it was postponed 3 months.

DANA WHITE: Listen, I think you want a showboat right now. Set up an interview with me if this is really what you want to talk about. It's America, baby. first question for these two. Ask if you can set up an interview with me.

SEAN ZITTEL: Dana, my followup is if TKO can't make those changes to the Ali Act, will you still invest in the sport of boxing? Will you compete in the market?

DANA WHITE: Listen, if you want to be an let's do it in private and we can do an interview. If you want a showboat, I get it. If you have questions for these two that are fighting on Saturday, that's a different story.

CANELO ALVAREZ: Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!

DANA WHITE: This isn't a discussion to have a at a press conference for these two that are going to fight on Saturday. Two legends. If you want to set up an interview with me and ask me these questions, let's do it one-on-one. You can ask me anything you want. So, all right. Well, Terrace and Saul, have a good fight. Yeah. You have a question for these two? No. No. Beat it. Go ahead. Who's next?

Imagine the different type of response you would have gotten if it were Eddie Hearn answering this question.

Dana White knows how to promote Dana White. Ari Emanuel has been greatly helping Dana with an Endeavor-flavored curated media circuit that promotes Dana White The Brand while still pretending that he’s a power broker in UFC affairs.

In order for that scheme to work, Dana has to continue convincing the public that he still has power and is engaged in business affairs. The more he speaks, however, the more it is revealed to the public that Dana is no longer the man he used to be.

Can Dana White effectively sell the future interests of Turki Alalshikh to the masses? That is now a major question moving forward for TKO business affairs.

As a recent PBS Las Vegas interview demonstrated, Dana White is uncomfortable with soft confrontation or debate when it comes to basic fight business topics. He is no longer doing his homework. Is he lazy, or is it because he is no longer mentally or physically sharp enough to keep up with the job demands?

Ariel Helwani publicly called out Dana White for his poor performance in selling business interests worth billions of dollars to TKO.

TKO is entering a brave new world with its enhanced Turki Alalshikh policy. Turki is already a boss. Eventually, he wants to become the boss.

If Dana White can’t live up to those expectations, Mark Shapiro will have no choice but to dispose of him. He who has the gold makes the rules.

Zach Arnold is the lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack. You can e-mail him at fightopinion - at - protonmail dot com.