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WWE majority owner Vince McMahon is trying to get a massive check for his wrestling empire.

McMahon is reportedly looking to sell WWE for as much as $10 billion, according to Bloomberg. 

Potential buyers include Endeavor Group Holdings, the organization that owns the UFC, along with Middle Eastern investors, per the report.

The 77-year-old executive was the wrestling giant’s CEO and chairman for 40 years and built up the WWE into an entertainment juggernaut. McMahon stepped down in June 2022 due to hush-money allegations. 

McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie, served as co-CEO and chairwoman before her father returned as an executive chairman in January. When he made his return, McMahon made it clear he wanted to sell his company.

The secret to the Mets having a successful year is simple: Play the Marlins as often as possible.

The Mets snapped a three-game losing streak Friday with a 9-3 win over Miami in their home opener at Citi Field. They’ve now won four of five games against the Marlins this season — sandwiched around being swept in a three-game set in Milwaukee.

“The Brewers outplayed us, but we’ve got to turn the page,’’ Francisco Lindor said. “It’s part of being a good baseball team. Today was a good day for the New York Mets.”

Tylor Megill, filling in for the injured Justin Verlander, was excellent, tossing six scoreless innings. The Mets hardly missed Verlander, who hopes to be back from the strained muscle near his right armpit by the end of the month.

The Mets’ hitters, who had been quiet for much of the early part of the season, erupted for a season-high nine runs.

Dennis Santana gave up a three-run home run to former Yankee Garrett Cooper with two outs in the eighth to make things interesting, but Lindor and Pete Alonso homered in the bottom of the eighth to end any drama.  

Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. officially announced its purchase of World Wrestling Entertainment as part of its plan to merge the professional wrestling company with Ultimate Fighting Championship as a new, merged publicly listed company.

“This is a rare opportunity to create a global live sports and entertainment pureplay built for where the industry is headed,” said Ariel Emanuel, CEO of Endeavor. “For decades, Vince and his team have demonstrated an incredible track record of innovation and shareholder value creation, and we are confident that Endeavor can deliver significant additional value for shareholders by bringing UFC and WWE together.”

The deal is reported to be valued at $9.3 billion, according to Reuters.

Endeavor will hold 51% of the new combat sports and entertainment company, while WWE shareholders will hold for 49%. The report comes after WrestleMania 39, WWE’s biggest annual event.

Longtime WWE chairman Vince McMahon will serve as executive chairman, while Endeavor President Mark Shapiro will continue the same role with the new company.

Rumors have existed for years that Pete Rose played with a corked bat during his legendary MLB career, and that talk has resurfaced because of an interesting claim made by a former Montreal Expos groundskeeper.

Joe Jammer was a groundskeeper for the Expos for 11 years, including when Rose played for the team for a brief period in 1984. In a recent phone interview with Danny Gallagher of The Montreal Gazette, Jammer said Rose regularly had his bats corked in the visitors’ clubhouse by a team staffer named Bryan Greenberg that season.

“Pete Rose would have his bats corked in the visitors’ clubhouse at Olympic Stadium,” Jammer said in a phone interview from London, England, where he is now a club-playing musician.

“I found out he was corking bats. … Pete was too smart to deal with Expos equipment manager John Silverman (to cork his bats in the Expos’ clubhouse). So Bryan Greenberg, who worked in the visitors’ clubhouse, did it. He took me into a room, a door to the left, and underneath tarps there was this machine.”

Jammer said he was shown a machine in the visitor’s clubhouse that was designed for corking Rose’s bat. Greenberg allegedly told Jammer that Rose had been corking his bat for 20 years, indicating the 17-time All-Star had been doing it throughout his entire career. The reason Rose never got caught was because he was not a power hitter, Jammer claims he was told by Greenberg.

Greenberg did not deny the allegation. When reached by the Montreal Gazette, he only said that he “can’t talk about it” and does not want to answer questions. A separate source who chose to remain anonymous told Gallagher that Rose only had his bat corked a few times a year.

There were familiar chants of “M-V-P!” as Aaron Judge strode toward home plate in the first inning on Opening Day, digging his right cleat across the dirt of the batter’s box as he prepared for his first official at-bat since being named the 16th captain in Yankees franchise history.

It took all of two pitches for Judge to pick up where he left off. Having eclipsed Roger Maris’ single-season American League record with 62 home runs last year, Judge belted the Majors’ first of 2023, powering a Logan Webb sinker over the center-field wall at Yankee Stadium as the Yankees cruised to a 5-0 win over the Giants.

“You really don’t hear much when you hit it and you’re running the bases,” Judge said. “But once I hit home and saw my family there, the roar of the crowd, my teammates — that’s when you soak it in a little bit.”

Judge’s drive came off the bat at an exit velocity of 109.3 mph and traveled a Statcast-projected 422 feet. It also came against the Giants, one of the clubs that attempted to sign Judge this past off-season.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said Jeff Bezos “is probably one of the most competent business people in the world” who would make a “great owner” if he bought the NFL’s Washington Commanders.

Kraft, one of the NFL’s most powerful owners, hailed Bezos as a “tremendous operator” when asked about reports that the Amazon founder was looking into buying the Washington team from Daniel Snyder.

“For those of us that are privileged to own NFL franchises — it’s the one thing more than anything that I believe builds community and we need good operating people in their individual towns,” Kraft said.

There is growing chatter in business circles indicating that Bezos was looking to clear the way for a purchase of the Washington Commanders by selling The Washington Post.

“I think Jeff would be a great owner,” Kraft said.

Major League Baseball added its 29th (Arizona Diamondbacks) and 30th (Tampa Bay Rays) teams before the 1998 season and has held firm at that number for more than two decades. In a few years, MLB expansion is expected to return.

Expansion has been put on the back burner in recent years but many say that league officials are focused on growing once again. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has said that the eventual goal is to have 32 teams. 

There remains no specific timetable for when MLB expansion will happen. However, cities are slowly putting together efforts to become a part of professional baseball in the future.

Las Vegas hopes to get a team–many say the Oakland A’s will move there. A group in Nashville has put together a bid for an expansion team. There’s also the city of Portland which has plans to potentially construct a stadium. 

Other cities in contention: Austin, San Antonio, Charlotte, and Orlando. There’s even the possibility of MLB expansion bringing the sport back to Montreal.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers plans to play for the New York Jets in 2023.

“Since Friday, I made it clear that my intention was to play and my intention is to play for the New York Jets,” Rodgers said.

After the 2022 season, Rogers said he’d take time to decide on his NFL future, admitting that retirement was on the table. The 39-year-old  went on a darkness retreat and revealed Wednesday that he was close to calling it a career.

“When I went into the darkness, I was 90% retiring and 10% playing,” he said.

Rodgers said the Packers organization told him it wanted him back for 2023 before he went on the retreat, but the situation was different after he returned.

“When I came out of the darkness, something changed,” Rodgers said.  The facts are, they want to move on, and now, so do I.”

The Rangers showed Evgeni Malkin and the Penguins just how dangerous they can be.

Caution tape should’ve lined the Rangers bench Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, where the home team rolled over the Penguins in a 6-0 win that inflated their lead on Pittsburgh to 12 points.

Every Rangers unit that jumped over the boards and onto the ice did well.

That included both power-play units, which went 1-for-4 on the night, and the penalty kill, which was a perfect 5-for-5. 

And the same could be said for goalie Igor Shesterkin, who recorded his first shutout in more than four months and has been dialed in for a handful of games now.