Ari Emanuel, Wrestling Billionaire

But he can't escape a brutal Hollywood media war even as he allies with Elon Musk vs Open AI

It’s a big day for Ari Emanuel. He’s finally, officially attained billionaire status. Although yesterday’s bloodbath in TKO stock can’t have been good for his fortunes. Billionaire is the new millionaire. Only billionaires can really be oligarchs in Trump world and only true oligarchs can be players in 2025.

The Hollywood Reporter has the deets:

The Hollywood titan and CEO of entertainment and media agency giant Endeavor has seen his net worth soar over the last 12 months as bets on WWE and UFC have paid off handsomely. Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index anointed Emanuel as part of the rarefied club of the super rich, owing in large part to his holdings in Endeavor, which has enjoyed a 48 percent rise in its share price in the last year, according to Bloomberg.

Endeavor’s gains have been underpinned by a majority stake in TKO Group Holdings Inc., the parent company of WWE and UFC. TKO, of which Emanuel is also the CEO, has nearly doubled in value in the past 12 months.

Ari Became A King of Hollywood Just As The Culture Factory Lost Its Mojo

A decade ago many people, likely including Ari himself, assumed he would eventually become a billionaire, but no one would have predicted he would become the second billionaire whose fortune came from monopolizing professional wrestling.

Unlike Vince McMahon, the previous pro-wrestling billionaire, Ari Emanuel is no laughing stock in the wider culture. Fifteen years ago when Vince was a billionaire and Ari wasn’t even close, Emanuel had infinitely more social cache.

That’s why Vince hired Ari when he was trying to “go legitimate” and become a force in Hollywood. We’ve argued in previous posts that the reasons for Ari’s success today — being early to recognize the power of owning content for streaming — came out of what he learned watching Vince’s early WWE Network.

And when Vince hit a rough spot, Ari was there to step in and buy the WWE from his old client. And when Vince hit a rougher spot, Ari was quick to push him out of the TKO boardroom.

Now Ari’s boardroom triumphs have made him a billionaire but not because of Hollywood. No, Ari’s a billionaire because of pro wrestling and mixed martial arts. And yet he’s far more respected than either Vince McMahon or The Fertitta Brothers, several of whose billions come from selling the UFC to Ari.

No, in the early 2010s, most assumed that Ari Emanuel’s road to riches would be paved with Hollywood gold after he assumed control over the storied William Morris Agency in a 2009 merger described as a hostile takeover.

That was back when Hollywood was still the cultural capital of Earth and its films were a major export for the United States. That was back when Chinese audiences clamored for Hollywood product.

The screenshots below from The New York Times, CNN, Forbes, and The Independent show how Ari Emanuel, the newest in a long line of Hollywood moguls was scene back in the day.

Unfortunately for Ari’s career ambitions, Hollywood went to shit and when the COVID epidemic (that’s “plandemic” to you Jesse on Fire and Bryce Mitchell fans) hit in 2020, the whole Endeavor empire nearly went tits up.

How the UFC Saved Ari’s Empire in 2020

As The LA Times reported at the time, it was a close-run affair: