Vince McMahon reportedly taking major step away from WWE
Vince McMahon sold his majority ownership of WWE to Endeavor in 2023. It was announced last year that World Wrestling Entertainment would merge with UFC under Endeavor Group Holdings to form a new entity, TKO.
In January 2024, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was announced as a new member of the board of the new group. This shocking turn of events was followed by a former employee of the Stamford-based promotion, Janel Grant, slapping a lawsuit on McMahon for s*x trafficking, among other heinous acts.
During the TKO investor's call, Ari Emanuel, Nick Khan (President of WWE) and Dwayne Johnson did not make any comments about Vince McMahon. However, the latter's name was brought up at the conference. McMahon allegedly has 20 million shares, but TKO Group Holdings is unaware of how he plans on using them.
"(Vince) will do whatever he’s going to do and we’re on the sideline,” said Endeavor COO Mark Shapiro. “We have no idea on timing. We’re not having any discussions with him. He’s given us no point of view on his motive or if he plans to sell or not sell, or if he does, how much. So we’re going to wait around and find out just like you." [H/T: Wrestling Observer Newsletter]
Despite a brief return to WWE after publicly announcing retirement in the summer of 2022, Vince McMahon's latest scandal appears to be a very serious case, one that he will find difficult to recover from.
Matt Riddle makes an interesting claim about Vince McMahon's methods in WWE as creative
Vince McMahon held a lot of creative control in WWE before selling the company he built up. His son-in-law Triple H soon took over as the Chief Content Officer.
During a discussion with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour recently, Matt Riddle talked about the difference between Triple H and Vince McMahon holding power in creative. According to the former WWE star, McMahon's regime was "chaotic" but he figured it was only done that way to bring out more passionate performances from the company's wrestlers on live TV:
"With Vince, I feel like he did it on purpose. [...] A little chaotic. I almost felt like he did that on purpose because I feel like when people know exactly what's gonna happen and you're doing live TV and you're trying to get passion and that energy. You kind of get set in a pattern because you know what's happening," Riddle said.
Riddle also recently claimed that Brock Lesnar is the ex-UFC star mentioned in Janel Grant's lawsuit against Vince McMahon. He also talked extensively about his former employer being a "maniac" behind the scenes.