TKO President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Shapiro told staff on Wednesday that there are “several goals we still need to accomplish and events that we need to be successful for us to close out 2026,” as the company prepares for WWE and UFC events in Saudi Arabia. “And that all gets wiped away to a certain degree if those events get canceled.”
Shapiro also told employees TKO “will not hesitate” to cancel its Middle East events if there is “danger or a further escalation” of the region’s conflicts.
Audio of the town hall meeting was exclusively obtained by POST Wrestling
The Zoom call ran just over an hour and covered much of TKO’s broader business, but several minutes were dedicated to whether upcoming events in the Middle East would go on as scheduled. WWE President Nick Khan also disclosed previously unreported ticket sales for Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua.
Shapiro’s comments come against the backdrop of recent attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by Iran-backed Houthi rebels based in Yemen. The U.S. State Department maintains Saudi Arabia at a Level 3 travel advisory, “Reconsider travel,” and last week ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and their families to leave the country.
Despite security concerns, WWE’s Crown Jewel event remains scheduled for November 7, although the venue was recently moved. Each WWE event in the country generates about $55 million in revenue, with potentially more for WrestleMania next year in Riyadh. Meanwhile, a Formula 1 race, a major tennis event, and the “Davos in the Desert” business summit have been called off amid the Houthi attacks. Alongside WWE’s event next week, UFC has a Fight Night card lined up for December 5 in Riyadh. TKO’s Zuffa Boxing has an event on November 14 in Riyadh. A boxing card headlined by Canelo Alvarez, which TKO isn’t involved with, is scheduled for Saturday night.
Earlier this month, Turki Alalshikh, Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, praised Alvarez’s commitment to going forward with his fight. “Hard times reveal true friends,” Alalshikh posted. Days earlier, an attack on Riyadh’s main airport killed 13 people. The Chairman is also a primary business partner from the Saudi government in its relationships with WWE, UFC, and TKO’s emerging boxing business.
Reminding staff that TKO is a public company, Shapiro said that shareholders are watching closely. “We have a lot of investors and analysts out there across the Wall Street community that are nervous that we’ll be able to pull off the year without any of our events being canceled,” he said.
He expanded on those business pressures later in the call. “We’ve had investors dubious that we could close out this year without any hiccups, meaning events being canceled,” Shapiro said. “You saw F1 and many events canceled given the global nature of our business. Well, so far, we’ve been lucky enough to not have any interruption.”
Shapiro told staff that if TKO events do end up getting canceled, “it will certainly have an impact on our year in a very negative way.” Whether TKO’s Middle East events go on or not likely won’t make the difference between profit and loss for the company in 2026. But removing those events would make it all but impossible for TKO to deliver on its financial expectations. Up until now, TKO has repeatedly outperformed its own public financial projections. On the conference circuit, Shapiro often paints TKO’s growth as a “cash geyser.” The company’s next quarterly earnings call is on Wednesday.
“At the same time, we have courageous employees, full-time and part-time, that are working across our events, going into these territories in the Middle East and standing behind our events so that we can stage them properly at the level—the high-quality level—we’re accustomed to, doing so in the face of potential danger and/or certainly anxiety and nervousness,” Shapiro said.
Mentioning top WWE executives Nick Khan, Paul Levesque, and Lee Fitting, he added: “It’s really miraculous and heroic what we’re able to do. So thank you for standing in there. Thank you for making the commitment as you always have, and we’re all hoping and praying everything goes off without a hitch. Of course, business is important, but humanity is most important,” Shapiro added. “So this is more about keeping people safe and comfortable. The business is secondary.”
“We will not hesitate to cancel those events, damned be our budget”
Executives on the call didn’t mention any specific attacks in Saudi Arabia while discussing safety, nor did they mention what would amount to the kind of danger or further escalation that would lead TKO to cancel events. Unlike previous town hall meetings, there was no question-and-answer session with written questions submitted by employees.
Shapiro seemed to acknowledge the competing priorities of corporate goals and personnel safety, indicating there are conditions under which they would cancel events. “I don’t want to talk out of both sides of my mouth here. We want to have the year we all envision we’ve all worked hard for,” he said. “But if there is danger or further escalation of any of these conflicts that are going on, we will not hesitate to cancel those events, damned be our budget.”
“So it’s certainly a balancing act,” Shapiro said. “But the people part of it does come first in that.”
UFC Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Epstein repeated the pledge later in the call. “I know we’ve got a lot of big events coming up in the Middle East,” he said. “We’re never putting anybody in harm’s way.”
WWE President Nick Khan highlighted WWE’s business activities but didn’t himself address safety or travel plans. Khan didn’t say whether he or Levesque planned to travel to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel. In a similar town hall meeting last April, Khan told staff ahead of the June 27 Night of Champions event that the company would only go if it was safe and that he and Levesque would make the trip. In April, Khan said, “If U.S. citizens are allowed in at this moment in time, it is declared and deemed safe, we’ll all be going there.” The June event, taking place in the months following the escalation of conflicts involving Iran, the U.S., and Israel, took place without any known safety issues.
WWE and TKO did not respond to questions sent by POST Wrestling on Friday, including what conditions would lead the company to cancel or relocate its events in Saudi Arabia, who would make that decision, and whether talent and staff can decline to travel there without consequence. The companies also did not say whether Khan, Levesque, Dana White, Shapiro or Ari Emanuel plan to attend any of the upcoming WWE, UFC or Zuffa Boxing events in Riyadh.
In the hours after the Wednesday Zoom meeting for staff, Riyadh Season announced that Crown Jewel would move from the open-air Riyadh Season Stadium to a new venue, with all tickets refunded. No reason was given. A ticketing website now indicates the show will be held at The Venue, also in Riyadh. That’s the same indoor facility where Saturday’s Alvarez fight and the upcoming Zuffa boxing card are scheduled to be held.
WWE and TKO did not respond when asked whether security was a factor in the move.
An earlier report on the town hall said Shapiro stated that staff safety was “paramount.” In the meeting, Shapiro never used that word in the reported context; however, he did make comments to that effect.
Shapiro returned to the subject of safety as he wrapped up the call. “We’ve got major events coming up. I hope we can stage them, stage them safely,” he said. He told staff that although this was planned as the last town hall of the year, “there could be some events, obviously, that we’ve discussed, and some results that necessitate having another town hall in early December.”
Nick Khan’s WWE business highlights
Khan’s portion of the meeting covered WWE and Zuffa Boxing. He said that the December 11 fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua has sold 71,000 of the 72,000 available seats at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. That fight is scheduled to be broadcast on Netflix.
“Just wanted to highlight ticket sales for that because it hasn’t been out there publicly,” Khan said. He added: “It was priced aggressively and it was priced accurately in terms of the results of that event.”
Khan mentioned that Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn drew $8 million in ticket sales on September 12 in Las Vegas at T-Mobile Arena.
Khan said the weekend around Mexican Independence Day in September produced “over $20 million in gate revenue and financial incentive packages” across six TKO events in four days. Those were SmackDown and Raw in Mexico City, both nights of AAA’s TripleMania, UFC’s Noche card in Arizona, and the Garcia vs. Benn fight.
AAA sold $425,000 in merchandise over the two nights of TripleMania (on September 11 in Las Vegas and September 13 in Mexico City), Khan said, shattering the previous record of $33,000.
Khan also emphasized the WWE wrestlers positioned to lead the company into the future.
“You may recall John Cena in his retirement event last December. The undercard featured exclusively Raw and SmackDown superstars versus what were then NXT up-and-coming superstars: Oba Femi, Sol Ruca, Je’Von Evans,” Khan said. “If you fast-forward these 11 months, you have Oba Femi as a legitimate WWE main-eventer, Sol Ruca and Je’Von Evans almost co-main event status. They’re getting there. That’s in addition to our new main-eventers, Bron Breakker, Trick Williams, Stephanie Vaquer, all of whom will help to build and protect WWE’s future.”
He added that half of those wrestlers are former Division I college athletes, crediting a 2022 change in WWE’s recruiting strategy.
Khan said that since SiriusXM’s wrestling channel was rebranded “WWE Radio,” the audience has doubled. On Thursday, satellite radio company’s CEO Jennifer Witz, on an earnings call Thursday, said the channel’s listening was up “nearly 20%” since the launch in July. WWE did not respond to a request to clarify how Khan measured the increase. Khan also claimed that WWE Radio’s average listening time is the highest of any sports channel, “almost doubling the NFL’s channel.”
Ali Act, incentive packages and Orlando
In his comments on UFC, Epstein provided an update on the status of the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act, which TKO is hoping will be passed into law, because it will allow Zuffa Boxing to be run as a centralized, UFC-style boxing league. Epstein noted the bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives, cleared the committee in the Senate, and has been “hotlined,” or fast-tracked. He expects a Senate vote on the bill once lawmakers return after next week’s midterm elections, followed by “hopefully another quick vote” in the House.
Shapiro also told staff that financial incentive packages, TKO’s term for the payments governments and tourism authorities make to host its events, are “beginning to take more and more of my time.”
“We need subsidies and support in order to go to these various cities,” Shapiro said. “Often they get behind it when they are financially incentivized, when they have real skin in the game.” He said staging TKO’s first event in Africa is a priority, and that the company is “in meaningful discussions on that front.” He didn’t offer more detail on a location.
Among other items, Shapiro briefly mentioned that TKO is considering “expanding-slash-enhancing our Orlando operation in a really significant way” with outside partners, presumably referring to WWE’s Performance Center facility.
