After retiring from the WWE last July and stepping down from his duties as the CEO, Chairman and Head of Creative due to paying nearly $20 million in previously unrecorded expenses, almost $15 million of which were hush money for the sexual misconduct allegations he received from four women over the past 16 years and $5 million of which to the now-defunct foundation of former U.S. President Donald Trump, Vince McMahon recently returned to the company and was reinstated to the Board of Directors. He would then be named the Executive Chairman of the Board just hours later.
Since Vince made his return to the WWE, there have been a bunch of speculations as to what he will be doing aside from helping secure new TV rights deals for RAW and SmackDown and also look for potential bidders interested in buying the company. McMahon’s return to the WWE sent huge shockwaves throughout the entire pro wrestling industry as not only did Stephanie McMahon resign from the WWE as Chairwoman and co-CEO, rumors started swirling all over the internet and social media about a potential WWE sale and it was noted that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund purchased the company, but that has since been flat-out denied.
Dave Meltzer noted on a recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Radio Program that since McMahon was forced to resigned from the WWE several months ago talks with the Saudis about a potential sale began almost instantly, so this isn’t something that just started one week ago and Vince coming back is not an accident as it has been planned months ago for him to close a deal he started talking about months prior.
This is what Dave Meltzer said:
“The one thing we do know about this story is that ever since was ousted, he did open up talks with the Saudis. So this didn’t come in the last week and his coming back was obviously to close a deal that perhaps the people who are running the company for all the reasons we’re talking about probably felt very uneasy about the deal closing because they’re perhaps looking out for the long-term [future] of the company and their own a**es too as well. That’s another layer.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for transcribing the quotes.
