John Ourand at Sports Business Journal published a long, detailed story that goes deep behind-the-scenes of the quest for both UFC and WWE to sell the rights to its television properties. It is a fascinating look at big business in the media world, and I suggest you head over and read it right now. It’s long, but well worth your time.

There are some notable bits that stuck out, at least to me:

WWE brought on CAA as representation in negotiations after Vince McMahon was personally informed by FOX Sports President Eric Shanks that there was a conflict of interest with ongoing negotiations with both UFC and WWE, who were, at the time, being represented by the same agency, WME-IMG. Networks, as Ourand put it, “did not feel comfortable negotiating with the same person for two competing sports properties.”

CAA approached Turner Broadcasting about a deal but with the Time-Warner merger with AT&T happening, there was no way a deal could be made. There was, however, interest but only in SmackDown.

ESPN was also in the running and had met with WWE officials at least four times over the past year but because ESPN couldn’t guarantee that WWE could air every week all year in the same timeslot, they couldn’t come to a deal.

Ourand makes the case that advertisers are now coveting WWE’s fan base when in the past they shied away from professional wrestling programming.

There’s a lot more, and, again, I encourage you to go read it in full right here.