Vince McMahon is done with WWE for good, discloses Mark Shapiro
For the last many decades, it has been hard to fathom if WWE Chairman Vince McMahon will ever be gone from pro-wrestling entertainment for good. Even after publicly announcing his retirement in 2022, McMahon returned as an executive member of the TKO board. This time, though, Vince is retired permanently, claimed Mark Shapiro.
In the wake of Janel Grant's accusations, which included sex trafficking to other men, including John Laurinaitus and an undisclosed top WWE star, among others, the man behind World Wrestling Entertainment left the board.
He has since received backlash from the wrestling world owing to the disturbing 67-page lawsuit in which it was alleged that Vince McMahon pressured Grant - who served as a WWE employee from 2019 to 2022 - to engage in sexual activities. Despite resigning from the TKO Board after getting sued by Janel Grant, Vince denied the accusations.
When the topic of McMahon selling his $400 million+ in stock came up at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco earlier today, Mark Shapiro cleared the company's name:
"We did not participate in the recent sale on Vince McMahon's load that he dropped off. This is now his second time. He's gone from 28 million shares to 15 million shares. He now roughly has 8.5%. We’re not in conversations with him. We don’t know his motives, his plans or his timeline. He doesn’t work for the company, doesn’t come into the office and he’s not coming back to the company." [H/T: Fightful]
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was appointed to the board of directors of TKO Group (the parent company of WWE and UFC) just days before Vince McMahon's scandal brought unwanted media attention to the product. The former WWE Champion subsequently became a regular on television, getting involved in the main event angle heading into WrestleMania XL.
WWE seemingly planted the seeds for The Rock vs. Roman Reigns after WrestleMania XL
Last week's eventful SmackDown episode kicked off with The Bloodline. They took over half an hour of television time, but every single moment was captivating in the eyes of the viewers.
On Sportskeeda's Smack Talk, wrestling veteran Dutch Mantell touched upon the segment, which was predominantly about The Rock issuing a challenge to Cody Rhodes for a tag team main event at WrestleMania XL Night One. However, Mantell brought up the tension between The Great One and The Tribal Chief:
"This is the longest in-ring, to start a WWE show that I've ever seen. But it was done so well, so masterful that nobody cared. Really, nobody wanted it to end. It was getting tedious at the end. They had them from go to wow. And that part with Paul Heyman in there. You could tell Roman said, 'Hey let's go' and he's like, 'No we can't go right now.' Then you're thinking now they've slided The Rock. Now they're gonna have to answer for that. So that held them through the break."
You can watch the full episode below:
World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins disclosed that he was medically cleared to wrestle again on RAW this past Monday night. He and Cody Rhodes are going to SmackDown Friday to give a face-to-face answer to The Rock and Roman Reigns.