Former WWE shareholders are requesting Vince McMahon turn over documents for discovery related to his sexual misconduct and hush money payments in their suit claiming the wrestling magnate broke his obligations to them when ushering a merger with UFC, forming Endeavor’s TKO.
The shareholders are suing McMahon, claiming he acted in his own best interest in pursuing the merger with UFC because he believed it would help him keep power over WWE despite allegations of sexual misconduct and McMahon paying settlements to keep those allegations quiet.
The suit, initially filed in Delaware in November 2023, alleges McMahon wasn’t faithful to his shareholders in the merger because he didn’t seek the highest sale price. Their motion to force McMahon to turn over the documents was filed Tuesday.
During the discovery period, the plaintiffs’ legal team asked for documents around the hush money payments and sexual misconduct allegations, but McMahon’s representatives have claimed these are unrelated, and only wanted to hand over those that mention the merger.
The shareholders are claiming the documents are relevant because they would show McMahon’s “state of mind” amid the 2023 merger. McMahon resigned as CEO and chairman of WWE amid the initial allegations in 2022, then found his way back onto the board the next year to facilitate the merger with UFC, whose parent company, Endeavor, is led by his Ari Emanue, whom the suit calls his “friend.”
Emanuel eventually asked McMahon to resign in January 2024 after a former WWE employee, Janel Grant, alleged that McMahon had trafficked and abused her.
The new filing says the documents are “essential because, among other things, the Sexual Misconduct Requests are highly relevant to McMahon’s incentives, motivations, and actions regarding the Merger.”
The filing says, as an example, “if a document shows that McMahon learned that information about his misconduct might make it to the Board or public, and shortly thereafter he contacted Emanuel, the document is extremely significant even if it does not expressly reference any strategic transaction or review.”
Current and former WWE executives Nick Khan, George Barrios, Steve Koonin, Michelle Wilson, and Frank Riddick are also listed as defendants.
The original complaint claims McMahon chose to merge with Endeavor over other higher bidders because he believed Emanuel would allow him to maintain financial benefits and control over WWE, unlike other bidders, who would not have kept him on due to the allegations.
McMahon has also been embroiled in claims of financial mismanagement stemming from two multi-million dollar hush money payments he made to Grant and another accuser out of WWE’s accounts in 2019 and 2022 without informing the company. Those came to light in 2022, and WWE had to refile its previously misreported financial statements. McMahon settled with federal investigators for $1.7 million in January.
These overlapping timelines are why the shareholders want the hush money documents for their case. They say they don’t want to rehash those cases, but they do want to stop McMahon from selectively choosing which documents are included. So far, he’s contended that only documents mentioning the merger should be involved.
“McMahon’s Discovery Materials concerning the Sexual Misconduct Topics are relevant to show his state of mind before he forced himself back on the Board, while he was drumming up the strategic review, and after steering the Merger to Endeavor, including whether McMahon viewed the fallout from his sexual misconduct and the ensuing Investigations as realistic threats to his employment at and control over WWE,” the filing reads.
In another legal development against McMahon this week, on Monday, a judge ruled to accept Grant’s amended complaint against him.
