Tony Khan, Nick Khan & More Named To Variety’s 2024 ‘Dealmakers’ List

Tony Khan, Nick Khan, Ari Emanuel and more have been named to Variety’s 2024 ‘Dealmakers’ list. The trade published their 2024 list of the top names who have “continued to work on behalf of their clients” on Wednesday with the AEW head as well as WWE & TKO’s Khan, Emanuel, Mark Shapiro, and Andrew Schleimer to the list.

The write-ups for each are below:

Tony Khan
CEO, All Elite Wrestling (AEW)
In October, five years to the week after Khan launched professional wrestling promotion AEW as a direct competitor to Vince McMahon’s long-dominant WWE, he closed a multi-year media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, worth a reported $185 million a year, that calls for AEW’s shows and events to be broadcast on TBS and TNT and stream on Max. The company is now valued at more than $2 billion, making it the third-most-valuable combat sports company in the world.

Ain’t bragging if it’s true: “Our new arrangement signifies that AEW will make history as the first professional wrestling promotion to simulcast events weekly on top cable channels and a top streaming platform,” says Khan.

Ariel Emanuel, Nick Khan, Mark Shapiro, Andrew Schleimer
Ariel Emanuel – CEO, TKO
Nick Khan – President, WWE
Mark Shapiro – President & chief operating officer, TKO
Andrew Schleimer – Chief financial officer, TKO
Last year, Endeavor merged Ultimate Fighting Championship with World Wrestling Entertainment under the TKO Group Holdings banner. In January 2024, TKO’s leadership quadrumvirate closed a $5.2 billion, 10-year deal to make Netflix the exclusive home of WWE’s flagship show “Raw” in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Latin America and other territories beginning in January 2025. As part of the pact, Netflix will be the home for all WWE shows and specials outside the U.S. from that date forward, giving roughly 80% of international territories immediate access to 100% its content, with the rest of the globe filling out their WWE lineups as outstanding deals expire.

Added value with Netflix: “While the money is extraordinarily important, the downstream impact and ancillary benefits to being with the distributor and just south of 300 million homes globally was something that got us very excited,” says Schleimer.