Eric Bischoff Says UFC Employees Have The Most To Worry About After WWE Merger

Eric Bischoff believes there will be layoffs in the WWE-UFC merger under UFC's parent company Endeavor.

"Will there be cost cuts? Of course there will, because there's a lot of duplication," said Bischoff on the latest "83 Weeks" podcast. Bischoff thinks that despite WWE being valued less than UFC in the $21 billion merger, he feels Endeavor may see WWE staff as a bigger asset than their valuation would suggest.

"This is a guess, I suspect that there'll be more layoffs ... within UFC than there probably will be in WWE. I say that because WWE is a very sophisticated, mature business compared to UFC." 

Bischoff says that WWE's 40 years of operation, as opposed to what he estimates as 15-20 years of serious operation from UFC, has given WWE a headstart on UFC in not only business, but also marketing, international distribution, merchandising, and licensing. "[WWE is] probably as sophisticated as any other media company out there, including Disney and some of the other ones."

Bischoff doubled down on his prediction. "I think there's going to be layoffs — I know there will be — but I think the majority of them are going to come on the UFC side as opposed to the WWE side. I'd be more concerned if I was working for UFC right now, than if I was working for WWE."

WWE is expected to finalize the merger by the end of the year. Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel asked for ousted chairman Vince McMahon to return to WWE and oversee the wrestling operations.