TV Exec Expects WWE Sale To Take 'Many Months'

One of the hottest topics in the world of wrestling is the return of Vince McMahon as WWE's Executive Chairman, as he purportedly prepares to sell the company to a larger organization. On the latest edition of "Strictly Business," former WCW boss Eric Bischoff admitted that he's "obsessed" with the topic right now and brought on Brian Bedol, the founder of the channels Classic Sports Network and College Sports Television, to discuss how long the process may take. Bedol said that "multiple pieces" of the puzzle will make this take a bit longer than some spectators may expect.

"Really, in any transaction, you have to get a series of approvals, some that happen quickly and almost automatically; some take time. But a deal like this needs to be disclosed. You're a public company so you're really in service to the shareholders, and this is months [in the making], not days or weeks. That doesn't mean that something doesn't get announced quickly, but it's a couple to many months until closing." Bischoff personally thinks that McMahon will make WWE a private company once again, but Bedol explained how the shareholders have a big say in his ability to carry that idea out.

"I think that they, generally, are purely financially driven. A shareholder owns a share of stock that's worth X and the Board is obligated in a situation like this to take the best offer and most valuable offer for the shares of stock, so where the terms and conditions come into the evaluation is if one bidder is an all-cash bidder and another bidder is depending on raising 3 billion dollars of debt — just using that as an example. The likelihood of closing with the cash bidder is more likely." Tonight, WWE celebrates 30 years of "WWE Raw," although McMahon isn't expected to participate.