Vince McMahon, the former CEO of WWE, plans on returning to the wrestling company as executive chairman following his
scandal-riddled retirement, he announced in a statement.
To recap: last year McMahon
suddenly announced his retirement from WWE on Twitter while he was under investigation for paying multiple women within the company $US12 ($17) million to keep quiet about alleged sexual affairs. Following his retirement, the company announced that Vince’s daughter, Stephanie McMahon, would serve as
the wrestling promotion’s CEO and chairperson. Shortly after, the company announced that Stephanie’s husband, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, would be
in control of WWE creative storylines.
Read More: Vince McMahon Finally Fires Himself, And It’s A Big Deal
According to a report from
The Wall Street Journal, the reason McMahon wants to return to the company as its executive chairman is so that he can help spearhead a strategic-review process and take advantage of a narrow window in which a sales process can be initiated as the media rights for WWE shows
Monday Night Raw and
Friday Night Smackdown are about to be renegotiated. People close to the situation told the
WSJ that unless McMahon has direct involvement with the strategic review of the WWE shows as the organisation’s executive chairman, he won’t support or approve any media-rights deal or sale to a streaming or network platform.
Last month, WWE’s board responded to McMahon in a letter and stated it was willing to collaborate with him while hammering out the review process for selling the intellectual property of Smackdow
n and
Raw. However, sources familiar with the correspondence between McMahon and WWE told
WSJ that the board unanimously agreed that McMahon returning to the company wouldn’t be in shareholders’ best interests.
People close to the situation told
WSJ that McMahon expects he will be able to assume the role of executive chairman, but in order to do so, he’ll need the board’s approval. WWE’s board also requested that McMahon re-confirm his obligation to repay expenses incurred by WWE related to an investigation of the allegations against him, and that he agree not to return to WWE during government probes over his alleged misconduct. According to the
WSJ, McMahon agreed to complete paying reimbursements, so long as they weren’t covered by insurance, but refused to agree to not return to the company.
Kotaku reached out to WWE for comment.
The post After ‘Retiring,’ Vince McMahon Wants Back In WWE appeared first on Kotaku Australia.
