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How WWE’s Vince McMahon ruthlessly got his job back despite allegations of sexual assault and misuse of company funds

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Washington
CNN
 — 

Professional wrestling is known for its outlandish, dramatic stories that have captivated generations. It’s an athletic soap opera built on emotional drama with wrestlers sometimes scheming in the background for months only to make their move at the opportune moment, drawing crazed reactions from arenas packed with fans who have followed every beat.

But the real-life saga playing out in World Wrestling Entertainment’s corporate office over the last several weeks surpasses even what most of what those performers and their backstage colleagues could dream up.

Vince McMahon, the longtime force behind WWE at the corporate and creative levels, made a shocking return to the company on January 10, nearly six months after announcing his retirement. McMahon was alleged to have used company funds to pay millions to multiple women in order to cover up infidelity and allegations of sexual misconduct.

But over a series of just a few days last week, McMahon engineered his return to the company’s board of directors, reshaped it by forcing out some members, replaced them with his own allies, and used that new boardroom power to install himself in his old job as executive chairman. His own daughter – the heir apparent to the company who had appeared groomed to take the job for years – resigned.

The stunning and swift developments have the wrestling world reeling, with rumors of a sale burning up Wrestling Twitter and people inside and outside the company wondering what it all means for the future of WWE and professional wrestling itself.

In July, Vince McMahon – an ever-present force in WWE and professional wrestling, the man who remade the business in service of a vision that upended generations of tradition, creating his own hegemony – retired. Or he resigned, depending on who you ask.

It was a moment many wrestling fans and observers never thought would come. The longtime chairman and CEO of WWE was such an intense micromanager that he barely slept, rarely took vacations and almost never stopped putting his own spin on every single aspect of the company’s output. Many longtime followers of the company simply assumed he’d die in the role rather than retire.

But a series of revelations first reported in The Wall Street Journal about hush money payments to multiple women to cover up infidelity and allegations of sexual misconduct seemed to bring McMahon’s legendary run as the head of wrestling’s most important company to an end. Additional reporting came in December, with additional women accusing McMahon of sexual assault, seemed to cement his status as being permanently gone from WWE.

WWE has always been a family business – Vince McMahon, Sr., handed over the reins to his son in the 1980s – and it seemed set to continue that way. Vince McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie, who only weeks before had taken a leave of absence from the company, stepped into the role of co-CEO with Nick Khan, a longtime executive in the entertainment and media industry.

And Paul Levesque – Stephanie McMahon’s husband and a Hall of Fame professional wrestler himself and better known by his ring name, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, or Triple H – assumed the job as the head of creative, putting him in charge of WWE’s storylines and in-ring action, which his father-in-law had long managed.

That moment last summer signaled a sea change in the professional wrestling industry.

Vince McMahon was more akin to a king than a business executive in the world of WWE, his fingerprints on everything. Through his ruthless business practices, he had molded the industry in his image, running most of his competition out of business and turning his company into the destination for pro wrestling. For most of two decades, he had a monopoly on the business.

But his creative output cratered in recent years. Stars who left WWE described a frustrating creative process dominated by McMahon that stifled their visions and led to a homogenized product that felt miles away from the company’s peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

With the vast majority of company revenue coming from TV rights, instead of fans spending money on tickets or pay-per-view events, the need to give the people what they want was replaced by content production. Sometimes it seemed as if Vince McMahon’s creative decisions were meant to antagonize and annoy his audience, appearing to ram home his vision of “sports entertainment” whether they liked it or not.

A turning point for many was the 2015 Royal Rumble event. Fans were clamoring for their favorite Daniel Bryan, one of the most gifted wrestlers on the planet, to win the event’s namesake. To many fans, Bryan’s run symbolized hope that the company would promote their favorite wrestlers instead of McMahon’s chosen ones.

But Bryan was unceremoniously eliminated in the first half of the match. The crowd in Philadelphia booed throughout the second half, chanting Bryan’s name and refusing to celebrate when Roman Reigns – widely seen as McMahon’s choice to be the future of the company despite fan apathy – won.

Shrinking viewership numbers reflected that loss of hope. While TV ratings overall have dropped in the last several years, with some exceptions, WWE’s drop outpaced the general decline in overall viewership and in the key 18-49 demographic, according to Wrestlenomics, a website that tracks the business side of the industry.

Once considered a wrestling genius, critics have more recently come to consider Vince McMahon a creative liability. The elevation of Levesque and the Stephanie McMahon-Khan duo appeared to signal hope that a new era was dawning over the WWE and that its creative system would finally get the long-needed injection of new ideas, new faces and new energy.

In December, The Wall Street Journal reported McMahon was eying a comeback – the first rumblings that the new era might be on shaky ground.

According to the Journal’s reporting, McMahon was telling people around him that he had received bad advice to step aside after the paper reported he used company funds to pay more than $12 million in hush money settlements to women to cover up “allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.”

The WSJ also reported McMahon believed the controversy would have blown over if he had just stayed on as head of creative and chairman of the company’s board of directors.

Then, in early January, McMahon made his move.

As revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, McMahon said he had to return to the company because negotiations over media rights and a “strategic alternatives review” required his “direct participation, leadership and support.” He told the SEC he was putting himself back on the company’s board of directors, along with two longtime allies – both of whom McMahon had fired from the company in 2020.

How could he do this, despite retiring in disgrace and ostensibly being away from the company for months? McMahon never sold his stock in the company and remained WWE’s controlling shareholder.

“The only way for WWE to fully capitalize on this opportunity is for me to return as Executive Chairman and support the management team in the negotiations for our media rights and to combine that with a review of strategic alternatives,” McMahon said in a news release. “My return will allow WWE, as well as any transaction counterparties, to engage in these processes knowing they will have the support of the controlling shareholder.”

Over the course of just a few days, he had gone from ostracized former wrestling executive to once again running the company that he had taken from a regional player to a global power. It just was the kind of swerve one might have expected from “Mr. McMahon,” Vince McMahon’s devious on-screen character, who served as wrestling’s greatest heel for years in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Just days after reinstalling himself on the company’s board, WWE’s board of directors unanimously returned him to his old job as executive chairman.

Not only that, his daughter, Stephanie McMahon – who had seemed groomed to take over the company for years and played prominent roles on screen and off – resigned as chairwoman and co-CEO of WWE, leaving it all together.

Nick Khan was left as the company’s lone CEO. But the corporate machinations over the last week showed that, once again, McMahon was the real power in WWE.

There are reports that McMahon is exploring selling the company, but it’s not clear if there’s any truth to them.

So far, all of McMahon’s statements about his intentions pertain to business negotiations. But Stephanie McMahon’s departure has cast a cloud over her husband’s future with the company.

As his father-in-law forced his way back into the company, Levesque was gearing up for his first major period in charge of WWE’s storytelling heading into its most important time of year. WrestleMania season kicks off with January 28’s Royal Rumble event and continues through the first weekend of April, when WWE runs a two-night WrestleMania event – its biggest shows of the year – at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. This was likely to be the first major test for Levesque’s creative vision for WWE and had been hotly anticipated by wrestling fans.

McMahon’s reemergence now leads to questions over how much influence the chairman will seek to exercise over the creative direction of the company, and how it might clash with Levesque’s own vision.

Upon taking control of creative, the WWE Hall of Famer re-signed scores of wrestlers who McMahon had released in recent years, including stars like Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman, and given priority to other wrestlers who don’t fit McMahon’s typical vision of a professional wrestler – someone taller than 6-foot-3 inches, muscular, good looking and with actual wrestling ability considered optional.

The futures of those Levesque favorites now seem less certain than they did just a few weeks ago.

There are real questions over how fans will receive the news of McMahon’s return. A man once seen as a legend in the business is accused of sexually assaulting multiple women, then using the levers of corporate power to escape accountability. Fans have already tuned out from the company in droves in recent years and some may decide not to spend their money, time and attention on a product helmed by McMahon.

And then there’s the question of how McMahon’s return affects the pro wrestling industry as a whole.

All Elite Wrestling (AEW), an upstart promotion begun in 2019 by Tony Khan – the son of auto parts billionaire Shahid Khan and no relation to the WWE CEO – and several of independent wrestling’s biggest stars, has become the second-biggest wrestling company in the world by simply being what WWE is not.

Its focus on long-term storytelling, great matches, charismatic stars and less sanitized production has allowed AEW to break WWE’s monopoly on the wrestling industry and become a verified player in the business.

As such, it had become a home for some of the highest profile wrestlers in the industry who had been burnt out on WWE’s corporate culture and bending to McMahon’s whims. His departure back in July and Levesque’s ascension to the WWE creative throne led many observers to wonder if AEW stars would be looking to jump ship and head to WWE.

There were some hopes among WWE diehards that Levesque’s new regime might be successful enough to snuff out AEW’s rise. McMahon’s return may toss some doubt into the minds of AEW wrestlers who were thinking about moving to WWE in the future.

Read original article here

Entertainment

How WWE’s Vince McMahon ruthlessly got his job back despite allegations of sexual assault and misuse of company funds

Leave a comment


Washington
CNN
 — 

Professional wrestling is known for its outlandish, dramatic stories that have captivated generations. It’s an athletic soap opera built on emotional drama with wrestlers sometimes scheming in the background for months only to make their move at the opportune moment, drawing crazed reactions from arenas packed with fans who have followed every beat.

But the real-life saga playing out in World Wrestling Entertainment’s corporate office over the last several weeks surpasses even what most of what those performers and their backstage colleagues could dream up.

Vince McMahon, the longtime force behind WWE at the corporate and creative levels, made a shocking return to the company on January 10, nearly six months after announcing his retirement. McMahon was alleged to have used company funds to pay millions to multiple women in order to cover up infidelity and allegations of sexual misconduct.

But over a series of just a few days last week, McMahon engineered his return to the company’s board of directors, reshaped it by forcing out some members, replaced them with his own allies, and used that new boardroom power to install himself in his old job as executive chairman. His own daughter – the heir apparent to the company who had appeared groomed to take the job for years – resigned.

The stunning and swift developments have the wrestling world reeling, with rumors of a sale burning up Wrestling Twitter and people inside and outside the company wondering what it all means for the future of WWE and professional wrestling itself.

In July, Vince McMahon – an ever-present force in WWE and professional wrestling, the man who remade the business in service of a vision that upended generations of tradition, creating his own hegemony – retired. Or he resigned, depending on who you ask.

It was a moment many wrestling fans and observers never thought would come. The longtime chairman and CEO of WWE was such an intense micromanager that he barely slept, rarely took vacations and almost never stopped putting his own spin on every single aspect of the company’s output. Many longtime followers of the company simply assumed he’d die in the role rather than retire.

But a series of revelations first reported in The Wall Street Journal about hush money payments to multiple women to cover up infidelity and allegations of sexual misconduct seemed to bring McMahon’s legendary run as the head of wrestling’s most important company to an end. Additional reporting came in December, with additional women accusing McMahon of sexual assault, seemed to cement his status as being permanently gone from WWE.

WWE has always been a family business – Vince McMahon, Sr., handed over the reins to his son in the 1980s – and it seemed set to continue that way. Vince McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie, who only weeks before had taken a leave of absence from the company, stepped into the role of co-CEO with Nick Khan, a longtime executive in the entertainment and media industry.

And Paul Levesque – Stephanie McMahon’s husband and a Hall of Fame professional wrestler himself and better known by his ring name, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, or Triple H – assumed the job as the head of creative, putting him in charge of WWE’s storylines and in-ring action, which his father-in-law had long managed.

That moment last summer signaled a sea change in the professional wrestling industry.

Vince McMahon was more akin to a king than a business executive in the world of WWE, his fingerprints on everything. Through his ruthless business practices, he had molded the industry in his image, running most of his competition out of business and turning his company into the destination for pro wrestling. For most of two decades, he had a monopoly on the business.

But his creative output cratered in recent years. Stars who left WWE described a frustrating creative process dominated by McMahon that stifled their visions and led to a homogenized product that felt miles away from the company’s peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

With the vast majority of company revenue coming from TV rights, instead of fans spending money on tickets or pay-per-view events, the need to give the people what they want was replaced by content production. Sometimes it seemed as if Vince McMahon’s creative decisions were meant to antagonize and annoy his audience, appearing to ram home his vision of “sports entertainment” whether they liked it or not.

A turning point for many was the 2015 Royal Rumble event. Fans were clamoring for their favorite Daniel Bryan, one of the most gifted wrestlers on the planet, to win the event’s namesake. To many fans, Bryan’s run symbolized hope that the company would promote their favorite wrestlers instead of McMahon’s chosen ones.

But Bryan was unceremoniously eliminated in the first half of the match. The crowd in Philadelphia booed throughout the second half, chanting Bryan’s name and refusing to celebrate when Roman Reigns – widely seen as McMahon’s choice to be the future of the company despite fan apathy – won.

Shrinking viewership numbers reflected that loss of hope. While TV ratings overall have dropped in the last several years, with some exceptions, WWE’s drop outpaced the general decline in overall viewership and in the key 18-49 demographic, according to Wrestlenomics, a website that tracks the business side of the industry.

Once considered a wrestling genius, critics have more recently come to consider Vince McMahon a creative liability. The elevation of Levesque and the Stephanie McMahon-Khan duo appeared to signal hope that a new era was dawning over the WWE and that its creative system would finally get the long-needed injection of new ideas, new faces and new energy.

In December, The Wall Street Journal reported McMahon was eying a comeback – the first rumblings that the new era might be on shaky ground.

According to the Journal’s reporting, McMahon was telling people around him that he had received bad advice to step aside after the paper reported he used company funds to pay more than $12 million in hush money settlements to women to cover up “allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.”

The WSJ also reported McMahon believed the controversy would have blown over if he had just stayed on as head of creative and chairman of the company’s board of directors.

Then, in early January, McMahon made his move.

As revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, McMahon said he had to return to the company because negotiations over media rights and a “strategic alternatives review” required his “direct participation, leadership and support.” He told the SEC he was putting himself back on the company’s board of directors, along with two longtime allies – both of whom McMahon had fired from the company in 2020.

How could he do this, despite retiring in disgrace and ostensibly being away from the company for months? McMahon never sold his stock in the company and remained WWE’s controlling shareholder.

“The only way for WWE to fully capitalize on this opportunity is for me to return as Executive Chairman and support the management team in the negotiations for our media rights and to combine that with a review of strategic alternatives,” McMahon said in a news release. “My return will allow WWE, as well as any transaction counterparties, to engage in these processes knowing they will have the support of the controlling shareholder.”

Over the course of just a few days, he had gone from ostracized former wrestling executive to once again running the company that he had taken from a regional player to a global power. It just was the kind of swerve one might have expected from “Mr. McMahon,” Vince McMahon’s devious on-screen character, who served as wrestling’s greatest heel for years in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Just days after reinstalling himself on the company’s board, WWE’s board of directors unanimously returned him to his old job as executive chairman.

Not only that, his daughter, Stephanie McMahon – who had seemed groomed to take over the company for years and played prominent roles on screen and off – resigned as chairwoman and co-CEO of WWE, leaving it all together.

Nick Khan was left as the company’s lone CEO. But the corporate machinations over the last week showed that, once again, McMahon was the real power in WWE.

There are reports that McMahon is exploring selling the company, but it’s not clear if there’s any truth to them.

So far, all of McMahon’s statements about his intentions pertain to business negotiations. But Stephanie McMahon’s departure has cast a cloud over her husband’s future with the company.

As his father-in-law forced his way back into the company, Levesque was gearing up for his first major period in charge of WWE’s storytelling heading into its most important time of year. WrestleMania season kicks off with January 28’s Royal Rumble event and continues through the first weekend of April, when WWE runs a two-night WrestleMania event – its biggest shows of the year – at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. This was likely to be the first major test for Levesque’s creative vision for WWE and had been hotly anticipated by wrestling fans.

McMahon’s reemergence now leads to questions over how much influence the chairman will seek to exercise over the creative direction of the company, and how it might clash with Levesque’s own vision.

Upon taking control of creative, the WWE Hall of Famer re-signed scores of wrestlers who McMahon had released in recent years, including stars like Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman, and given priority to other wrestlers who don’t fit McMahon’s typical vision of a professional wrestler – someone taller than 6-foot-3 inches, muscular, good looking and with actual wrestling ability considered optional.

The futures of those Levesque favorites now seem less certain than they did just a few weeks ago.

There are real questions over how fans will receive the news of McMahon’s return. A man once seen as a legend in the business is accused of sexually assaulting multiple women, then using the levers of corporate power to escape accountability. Fans have already tuned out from the company in droves in recent years and some may decide not to spend their money, time and attention on a product helmed by McMahon.

And then there’s the question of how McMahon’s return affects the pro wrestling industry as a whole.

All Elite Wrestling (AEW), an upstart promotion begun in 2019 by Tony Khan – the son of auto parts billionaire Shahid Khan and no relation to the WWE CEO – and several of independent wrestling’s biggest stars, has become the second-biggest wrestling company in the world by simply being what WWE is not.

Its focus on long-term storytelling, great matches, charismatic stars and less sanitized production has allowed AEW to break WWE’s monopoly on the wrestling industry and become a verified player in the business.

As such, it had become a home for some of the highest profile wrestlers in the industry who had been burnt out on WWE’s corporate culture and bending to McMahon’s whims. His departure back in July and Levesque’s ascension to the WWE creative throne led many observers to wonder if AEW stars would be looking to jump ship and head to WWE.

There were some hopes among WWE diehards that Levesque’s new regime might be successful enough to snuff out AEW’s rise. McMahon’s return may toss some doubt into the minds of AEW wrestlers who were thinking about moving to WWE in the future.

Read original article here

Entertainment

Vince McMahon Plots Return to WWE

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Vince McMahon,

the majority owner and former chief executive of

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.,

WWE 2.26%

plans to return to the company following his retirement last year amid a sexual-harassment scandal to pursue a sale of the business, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. McMahon, who has majority voting power through his ownership of WWE’s Class-B stock, has told the company that he is electing himself and two former co-presidents and directors, Michelle Wilson and

George Barrios,

to the board, the people said. The move to reinstate Mr. McMahon, which the board previously rebuffed, and the others will require three current directors to vacate their positions.

Mr. McMahon, whose abrupt departure in July 2022 followed disclosures by The Wall Street Journal of multiple payouts to women who had alleged sexual misconduct and infidelity, expects he will be able to assume the role of executive chairman, though he would need board approval for that, the people said.

It isn’t clear where that would leave his daughter, Stephanie McMahon. After his departure, she took over as chairwoman and co-CEO alongside

Nick Khan,

the company’s former president.

The 77-year-old sent a letter to WWE’s board in late December detailing his desire to return to the company he ran for four decades, to help spearhead a strategic-review process, the people said. Mr. McMahon believes there is a narrow window to kick off a sales process because WWE’s media rights—including for its flagship programs “Raw” and “SmackDown”—are about to be renegotiated, according to the people.

Mr. McMahon believes the media landscape is evolving quickly and more companies are looking to own the intellectual property they use on their streaming platforms, making WWE an attractive takeover target, the people said. WWE, which generates most of its revenue from selling content rights, posted its first year of over $1 billion in revenue in 2021. The company currently has a market value of just over $5 billion.

The board responded last month in a letter to Mr. McMahon that it was prepared to initiate a review process and would welcome working with him on it. However, it said it unanimously agreed that Mr. McMahon’s return to the business wouldn’t be in shareholders’ best interest, according to people familiar with the letters.

The board also asked Mr. McMahon to confirm his commitment to repay expenses incurred by WWE related to an investigation of the allegations and requested that he agree not to return to the company during government probes of the matter, the people said. Mr. McMahon said in response that he remains willing to continue working to complete any reimbursement for reasonable expenses related to the investigation, to the extent they aren’t covered by insurance, but he declined to agree to not return to the company.

He has communicated to the board that unless he has direct involvement as executive chairman from the outset of a strategic review, he won’t support or approve any media-rights deal or sale, the people said.

Mr. McMahon retired as WWE chief executive and chairman in July amid a board investigation of sexual-misconduct claims against him. The Journal reported that he had agreed to pay more than $12 million in secret settlements since 2006 to his accusers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors launched inquiries into the payments. WWE later disclosed additional payments in 2007 and 2009 totaling $5 million that it said were unrelated to the allegations of misconduct that led to its internal investigation.

WWE’s board ultimately found that the payments, though made by Mr. McMahon personally, should have been booked as WWE expenses because they benefited the company.

Mr. McMahon had told people that he intended to make a comeback at WWE, the Journal reported last month. He said that he received bad advice from people close to him last year to step down, according to the people familiar with his comments.

—Joe Palazzolo and Ted Mann contributed to this article.

Write to Lauren Thomas at lauren.thomas@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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Entertainment

AEW’s Messiness Is Making WWE Look Downright Tame

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Uh, that just happened.
Photo: AEW / Kotaku

Update 09/8/2022 9:45 p.m. ET: During the opening segment of AEW Dynamite, Tony Khan announced that the AEW world heavy weight championship and trios championships would be vacated and that a tournament would crown the new world champion. The new trios champions are Death Triangle. According to a report from Wrestling Observer, CM Punk has been suspended from the company. How long his and the other wrestlers who were suspended is unknown. Punk also suffered a triceps injury during his match at All Out and must undergo surgery that’ll leave him out of the ring for eight months. Original article continues below:

If you asked me what the best match was during All Elite Wrestling’s All Out pay-per-view on Sunday, I’d say it was the Acclaimed vs Swerve In Our Glory match. But if you were to ask me whether the returning MJF was the biggest surprise to come out of the five-hour long wrestling show, I’d respectfully disagree. Rather, the post-show fallout, where CM Punk and AEW’s executive vice presidents reportedly engaged in a violent, physical altercation, was the main event. Unfortunately, it wasn’t best for business nor was it entertaining. It was messy AF.

According to Cultaholic, Kenny Omega and Nick and Matt Jackson confronted CM Punk after comments of his ruffled a few feathers. During his post-match interview, Punk accused Omega and the Jacksons of spreading misinformation, suggesting that he was the reason fellow wrestler Colt Cabana was moved from AEW to Ring of Honor, a wrestling promotion AEW’s CEO Tony Khan recently acquired. This rumor was refuted by Khan himself in a recent interview with Forbes. After the interview, things escalated quickly. Fightful Select (which is paywalled, but the story was shared by Cultaholic) reports that Punk allegedly punched Matt Jackson, while Ace Steel, Punk’s trainer, bit Omega before throwing a chair at Nick Jackson, giving him a black eye.

Kotaku reached out to Warner Media for comment.

Denise Salcedo

According to a report from Sports Illustrated, Kenny Omega, Matt and Nick Jackson, Pat Buck, Christopher Daniels, Michael Nakazawa, and Brandon Cutler have been suspended from the company for their involvement in the backstage brawl. If you’re wondering what has become of CM Punk and Steele, multiple sources told Sports Illustrated they’ll either be added to the list of suspensions or will no longer be working with the company after tonight’s episode of AEW Dynamite. The glaring issue with this recent development is that CM Punk is AEW’s current world champion and Omega and the Jacksons are the company’s newly-crowned trios champions. So yeah, awkward.

Read More: It’s All Happening — AEW and WWE Now: AEW is going full ‘Use Your Illusion’ Tour

The drama arguably started a couple of weeks ago, when CM Punk opened AEW Dynamite by cutting a promo to further his feud with the interim champion, Jon Moxley. However, before laying into Moxley, Punk curiously went off script and called out wrestler Hangman Adam Page for a rematch despite there not being any plans for the two to reignite their onscreen feud. It all had to do with Page’s previous promo, where it was suggested that Punk was the reason Colt Cobana moved on to Ring of Honor. After the crowd confusingly cheered for Page, Punk laid into him in a bizarrely heelish manner, demanding an “apology […] as loud and as public as the disrespect” Punk claims he suffered when he was not-so-subtly blamed for Cobana’s departure.

G/O Media may get a commission

Sitting next to Punk during his rant was Tony Kahn, AEW’s CEO, who looked very uncomfortable and facially expressive as the world-famous wrestler went off script in front of the company’s executive vice presidents, while treating the CEO like a child. But it’s hard not to fault Khan for the situation he’s in.

During AEW’s Double or Nothing media scrum in May, Khan unabashedly placed Punk on a pedestal higher than any other wrestler in the company, saying “no one person has made a more positive impact” on AEW in terms of ticket sales and viewership. While Khan’s adulation might be true, it also gave credence to why Punk could so freely make a mockery of Khan’s status as the head honcho of the company by bull dogging him whenever he tried to defuse tension during the media scrum. Khan already said Punk is the lifeblood of the company with his whole chest, so now eyes are on Khan for whether he’ll issue Punk a suspension, let him slide for the sake of AEW’s TV ratings, or cut him loose.

Read More: CM Punk played himself

While AEW’s house is in shambles, things over at WWE are looking better than ever. During Punk’s media scrum which led to the alleged brawl, bite, and subsequent chair throwing, Punk was asked about MJF’s return to WWE. He responded by saying the “grass [is] not greener on the other side” (the other side being WWE). While Punk’s dismissal of WWE might’ve once made sense , it’s hard not to look at WWE and feel like the grass is in fact looking rather pristine. Vince McMahon has retired and the company is currently under the leadership of Paul “Triple H” Levesque. And the changes are clear.

Unlike AEW, women in WWE are now being booked properly by opening the show, with matches that last longer than a bathroom break. Former NXT wrestlers are experiencing an Uno-reverse renaissance of their own by having the stink from McMahon’s myopic creative decisions over their characters now removed. It’s ironic how four months ago WWE was on the decline while AEW was on the rise as far as public sentiment goes. Oh, how the “I am the table” have turned.

While returning WWE fans find themselves tuning in each week to see what new wrong Triple H will make right from McMahon’s many faults, AEW fans will have all eyes on AEW Dynamite tonight to see how the company handles the suspension of its newly-crowned trios champions and EVPs. And whether CM Punk will show up or not. Punk just reached his one year anniversary with the company and now he might be on the way out.

Although Khan attempted to spin Punk’s on-the-rails media scrum as a positive, saying real life beefs generate interest for future storylines during Punk’s media scrum. My man, no one is trying to see glorified theater performers try to actually murder one another in the ring. Maybe save for The Undertaker, who has a real nostalgia for the wild-west way locker room brawls used to be handled. Time will tell whether AEW rises to the occasion and runs a tighter ship where action behind the scenes won’t eclipse action inside the ring. But for now, this company is looking messy as hell.

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Entertainment

Vince McMahon spotted for first time since retiring from WWE

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Vince McMahon went out on the town for his 77th birthday.

McMahon, who retired from his role as CEO and chairman of WWE in July amid the revelation that he paid $15 million in hush money to several former company employees, was spotted in New York City for the first time since stepping down.

McMahon — who blocked his face from being fully photographed — was joined by a mystery woman, WWE legend John Cena and Cena’s wife Shay Shariatzadeh at the Waverly Inn.

Former WWE CEO Vince McMahon tries to hide his face as he walked into his car with a mystery woman after celebrating his 77th birthday.
WavyPeter / SplashNews.com
Vince McMahon celebrated his 77th birthday at the Waverly Inn in Manhattan.
WavyPeter / SplashNews.com
Vince McMahon retired from WWE last month amid a probe into settlements he reached with former WWE employees with whom he had sexual relationships.
WavyPeter / SplashNews.com

It was groundbreaking news in the pro wrestling business when McMahon stepped down from his post, which he’d held since 1982 after purchasing the company from his father.

McMahon lorded over every aspect of WWE, from the creative storytelling to the financials, as he transformed the company from being a regional wrestling territory to a publicly traded international conglomerate worth billions.

In wake of the exit, McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie McMahon, became co-CEO. The other co-CEO is Nick Khan, who joined the company from CAA in 2020. McMahon’s son-in-law, Paul Levesque, who has performed in WWE as Triple H, took over as head of creative. McMahon remains WWE’s majority shareholder.

WWE star John Cena and his wife Shay Shariatzadeh attended Vince McMahon’s birthday celebration.
WavyPeter / SplashNews.com
WWE star John Cena and his wife Shay Shariatzadeh attended Vince McMahon’s birthday celebration.
WavyPeter / SplashNews.com
Former WWE employee Lisa Fox Lee was also in attendance for Vince McMahon’s birthday celebration.
WavyPeter / SplashNews.com

“As I approach 77 years old, I feel it’s time for me to retire as Chairman and CEO of WWE. Throughout the years, it’s been a privilege to help WWE bring you joy, inspire you, thrill you, surprise you, and always entertain you,” McMahon said in a statement at the time. “I would like to thank my family for mightily contributing to our success, and I would also like to thank all of our past and present Superstars and employees for their dedication and passion for our brand.

“Most importantly, I would like to thank our fans for allowing us into your homes every week and being your choice of entertainment. I hold the deepest appreciation and admiration for our generations of fans all over the world who have liked, currently like, and sometimes even love our form of Sports Entertainment.”

In June, the Wall Street Journal first reported that McMahon had paid out $3 million in “hush money” to a former WWE paralegal, with whom he had a sexual relationship. He allegedly gave her a raise from $100,000 a year to $200,000. The anonymous tipster who alerted the company board to the news said that McMahon “gave her like a toy” to longtime executive John Laurinaitis, who recently exited the company. a

A subsequent investigation by the WWE board revealed that McMahon had paid out a total of $15 million to several women who were similarly former WWE employees with whom he had sexual relations, including at least one former wrestler.

According to the Journal, this former wrestler had alleged in 2018 that years back she had been coerced into oral sex by McMahon, and that she was subsequently demoted and her contract was not renewed after she cut off the relationship.

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Vince McMahon retires from WWE with $3.4 billion amid sexual harassment scandal

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Former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Vince McMahon left the company with a fortune of $3.4 billion after he retired last week amid a sexual harassment scandal that involved millions of dollars in hush money payments, according to reports.

In addition to retiring as a multi-billionaire, McMahon still holds voting control in the wrestling entertainment company, Bloomberg reported. McMahon also remains WWE’s largest shareholder with a 32% stake in the company.

The WWE revealed on Monday that McMahon paid $14.6 million in hush money to several women who alleged sexual misconduct between the years 2006 and 2022. 

In an SEC filing, the company said that the multi-million dollar payments were classified as “unrecorded expenses” and said it plans to restate its finances to reflect the expenditures.

Vince McMahon, 76, announced his retirement from WWE on Monday.
AP

All of the payments were either paid or will be paid by McMahon, the WWE said in the filing.

McMahon, 76, announced his retirement days earlier on July 22. McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie McMahon, will be chairwoman and co-CEO with Nick Khan, who joined WWE as president from CAA in 2020. 

She had stepped in as interim CEO when the board began its investigation into the allegations, which it is still investigating. Her husband Paul Levesque, former WWE wrestler, Triple H, also sits on the board.

“Our global audience can take comfort in knowing WWE will continue to entertain you with the same fervor, dedication, and passion as always,” McMahon said in a statement. “I am extremely confident in the continued success of WWE, and I leave our company in the capable hands of an extraordinary group of Superstars, employees, and executives …”

“As the majority shareholder, I will continue to support WWE in any way I can. My personal thanks to our community and business partners, shareholders, and Board of Directors for their guidance and support through the years. Then. Now. Forever. Together.”

McMahon still has voting control in the WWE and is its largest stakeholder.
ZUMAPRESS.com

The Wall Street Journal first reported the investigation began after the WWE was tipped off that the CEO had paid a former employee $3 million to keep quiet about their affair. According to an email obtained by the outlet, McMahon hired the woman as a paralegal to a $100,000 salary, and doubled it after the affair began.

The report said McMahon paid as much as $12 million to four women over at least 16 years. One of the accusers is a former wrestler who claimed in 2018 that years earlier McMahon had coerced her into oral sex before he demoted her when she ended the relationship.

McMahon’s retirement has led to some speculation that the WWE may be up for sale, Bloomberg reported, but the future of the company and McMahon’s future involvement is uncertain.

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Vince McMahon Retires as WWE CEO Amid Sexual Harassment Scandal

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Vince McMahon, the king of U.S. wrestling, retired as chief executive officer and chairman of

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.,

WWE 0.62%

following disclosures by The Wall Street Journal of multiple payouts to women who had alleged sexual misconduct and infidelity.

In a news release, the 76-year-old executive said his daughter, Stephanie McMahon, and the company’s current president, Nick Khan, will take over as co-CEOs. Ms. McMahon will serve as chairwoman.

“As the majority shareholder, I will continue to support WWE in any way I can,” Mr. McMahon said in a statement.

Stephanie McMahon will serve as chairwoman and co-CEO of WWE following her father’s retirement.



Photo:

Lauren Justice/Bloomberg News

Mr. McMahon didn’t respond to requests for comment, The company has said it is cooperating with the board investigation. Mr. McMahon won’t retain any role in the company’s creative content, according to a person familiar with the matter.

WWE describes Mr. McMahon as critical to the success of the company, which runs the world’s most famous wrestling business and reported record revenue of $1.1 billion last year. WWE said in regulatory filings that losing Mr. McMahon would put its entire business at risk.

Addressing the crowd at the start of WWE’s “Friday Night SmackDown” event in Boston, Ms. McMahon noted her father’s retirement and led the crowd in a chant of “Thank you, Vince.” Appearing emotional, Ms. McMahon mouthed “I love you, Dad,” into the camera.

Mr. McMahon temporarily stepped aside as chairman and CEO in June, when the company’s board of directors announced it would investigate allegations of misconduct against both Mr. McMahon and another executive, John Laurinaitis.

Mr. Laurinaitis didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The announcement followed a report in the Journal that Mr. McMahon had agreed to pay a secret $3 million settlement to a former employee with whom he had allegedly had a sexual affair.

The Journal later reported that Mr. McMahon had agreed to pay more than $12 million in hush money settlements over the previous 16 years to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.

Those payments went to four women, including a former wrestler to whom McMahon agreed to pay $7.5 million in 2018 after she alleged he had coerced her into performing oral sex.

World Wrestling Entertainment Chairman Vince McMahon during the WWE ‘Monday Night Raw’ show in Las Vegas in 2009.



Photo:

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The woman alleged Mr. McMahon demoted her and ultimately declined to renew her contract in 2005 after she refused further sexual advances, according to people familiar with the matter. The wrestler and her lawyer approached Mr. McMahon in 2018 and negotiated the payment in return for her silence, the people said.

In another deal, a WWE contractor presented the company with unsolicited nude photos of Mr. McMahon she reported receiving from him and alleged that he had sexually harassed her on the job, according to people familiar with the woman’s 2008 nondisclosure agreement. Mr. McMahon agreed to pay her roughly $1 million, these people said.

And in a 2006 agreement, a former manager who had worked 10 years for Mr. McMahon before he allegedly initiated a sexual relationship with her was paid $1 million to keep quiet about it, according to people familiar with the deal.

In his statement, Mr. McMahon said it had been a “privilege to help WWE bring you joy, inspire you, thrill you, surprise you, and always entertain you.”

WWE in June confirmed details of the Journal investigation and said at the time that a special committee of the board “is conducting an investigation into alleged misconduct” by Messrs. McMahon and Laurinaitis, head of WWE talent relations.

The Stamford, Conn.-based company appointed Ms. McMahon interim CEO in the wake of the investigation. She stepped away from her role as WWE’s chief brand officer in May, writing in a LinkedIn post that she was “taking this time to focus on my family” but that she planned to return.

The 12-member board includes several WWE executives and members of the McMahon family, including Mr. McMahon; Ms. McMahon; her husband,

Paul Levesque,

better known as the wrestler Triple H; and Mr. Khan. Man Jit Singh, a former Sony Pictures Home Entertainment executive, is the lead independent director and is running the inquiry, the Journal reported.

The company on Friday also announced that Mr. Levesque will resume his position as EVP, talent relations.

Write to Ted Mann at ted.mann@wsj.com, Joe Palazzolo at joe.palazzolo@wsj.com and Denny Jacob at denny.jacob@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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Brock Lesnar appears at WWE Smackdown after rumored exit

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The Beast arrived in Boston.

Brock Lesnar surprised fans Friday night while appearing at WWE Smackdown.

Multiple reports indicated that Lesnar walked out of Smackdown after the news that Vince McMahon is retiring as CEO and chairman of the company. Now, it appears it was just a storyline.

The news was first reported by Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer; Sean Ross Sapp tweeted that he heard Lesnar was “pissed off.”

Reached by The Post, a WWE spokesperson declined to comment on the reports.

Responding to Alvarez, Saraya-Jade Bevis, who performed in WWE as Paige and recently left the company, tweeted, “If this is true, Michael Cole better bring that up on commentary saying he let the WWE Universe down.”

This was a reference to when Sasha Banks and Naomi had creative differences with WWE and walked out — and this was how it was addressed by the TV broadcast.

Brock Lesnar.
Ethan Miller / Getty Images

McMahon retired from WWE after 40 years of running the company, after the board had been probing $12 million in “hush money” payments to four different former employees with whom he had sexual relations.



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Vince McMahon retires as WWE CEO after sexual misconduct probe

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Vince McMahon attends a press conference at MetLife Stadium on February 16, 2012 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Michael N. Todaro | Getty Images

World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Vince McMahon announced Friday that he was fully retiring after decades of leading the company founded by his father, a move that comes after WWE’s board said in June it was investigating allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that the married McMahon had paid more than $12 million to four women, all of who had been affiliated with the WWE, over the past 16 years to cover up claims of sexual misconduct and infidelity.

McMahon is by far the best-known promoter of professional wrestling in the United States, following in the footsteps of his father Vince McMahon Sr., and his grandfather Jess McMahon, who long were leading promoters of wrestling shows in the northeast United States.

McMahon in June had said he was stepping back from his role as CEO and chairman of Stamford, Connecticut-based WWE, while the board’s probe proceeded, installing his daughter Stephanie McMahon as interim CEO.

But he said at the time that he would retain control over creative content at the company, where he remains the majority shareholder, with about 32% of its stock.

On Friday, McMahon announced that Stephanie and WWE President Nick Khan were taking over as co-CEOs, and that his daughter would become chairman of the company. McMahon also will no longer have any role involving creative content.

“As I approach 77 years old, I feel it’s time for me to retire as Chairman and CEO of WWE,” McMahon said in a statement.

“I would like to thank my family for mightily contributing to our success, and I would also like to thank all of our past and present Superstars and employees for their dedication and passion for our brand,” he said.

“Most importantly, I would like to thank our fans for allowing us into your homes every week and being your choice of entertainment.”

McMahon’s wife Linda, a former WWE CEO herself, served as head of the Small Business Administration under then-President Donald Trump from 2017 through 2019.

Trump is a WWE Hall of Fame inductee. Before becoming president, he participated in wrestling shows put on by the company.

In 2007, at WrestleMania 23 in Detroit, Trump and McMahon picked a wrestler apiece to “fight” on their behalf in what was dubbed “The Battle of the Billionaires.”

After Trump’s wrestler, Bobby Lashley, bested McMahon’s proxy, Umaga, Trump used electric clippers to shave McMahon’s head.

On the heels of Vince McMahon’s retirement announcement, WWE’s stock price did not markedly change in after-hours trading, which saw a low volume of shares changing hands.

At the close of regular trading Friday, WWE had a market capitalization of about $4.9 billion.

– Additional reporting by CNBC’s Alex Sherman

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Wrestler, Female Referee Speak Out On McMahon Rape Allegation

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Vince McMahon interviewing Rita Chatterton on the professional wrestling talk show, Tuesday Night Titans.
Screenshot: WWE / Peacock / Kotaku

Amid news of misconduct and hush money payouts at the WWE, Rita Chatterton, the first female referee for the then-World Wrestling Federation, revisited her rape accusation against WWE CEO and chairperson Vince McMahon in an interview with New York Magazine.

McMahon has stepped back from his roles while the company’s board of directors conducts an investigation into his affair with another former-WWE employee, who was reportedly paid $3 million in a separation agreement barring her from disparaging either the company or the relationship with McMahon. The investigation is also looking into allegations of misconduct against both McMahon and WWE head of talent relations John Laurinaitis.

Chatterton’s accusation goes back much farther, however. She first accused McMahon of raping her in the summer of 1986 during a 1992 interview with Geraldo Rivera on his show Now It Can Be Told. During the interview, Chatterton alleged that McMahon propositioned her with sex during a private meeting to get a higher-paying WWF contract.

By then, the statute of limitations for rape had already run out, and charges were never filed.

McMahon hired Chatterton to the WWF to referee for his storyline where American singer Cyndi Lauper managed wrestler Wendi Richter. After she was hired, Chatterton told New York Magazine that her friend and former wrestler Leonard Inzitari, warned her to stay away from Vince.

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“He could make me or break me, and if I didn’t satisfy him, I was black-balled, that was it,” Chatterton told Rivera in 1992. “I was done.”

Chatterton told New York Magazine that McMahon pretended not to know her when they both attended Andre The Giant’s funeral. McMahon and his wife would later file a lawsuit against Chatterton and Rivera for false rape accusations. They later dropped the charges as the WWE had its hands full with unrelated trials regarding child molestation, sexual harassment, and trafficking illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Read More: Everything We Know About WWE’s Probe Of Vince McMahon [Updated]

Today, McMahon and the WWE face new controversy as the misconduct probe continues. His daughter, Stephanie McMahon, is serving as the wrestling promotion’s interim CEO and chairperson while McMahon maintains creative control of ongoing WWE storylines.

The news of WWE’s internal investigation of McMahon led former wrestler Leonard Inzitari to corroborate Chatterton’s allegation against McMahon in the same New York Magazine report.

“Was she taken advantage of? Absolutely,” Inzitar told New York Magazine. “Was she scared to death? Absolutely. Did she wanna do that? Probably not.”

Both Inzitari and Chatterton told the publication they are not surprised by McMahon’s current investigation, and Chatterton added she is glad that allegations against him are being investigated.

“Now this girl’s come forward I’m sure others will come forward,” Chatterton told New York Magazine. “Because we’re not the only two. There’s not a doubt in my mind about that.”

   

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