Over the past couple of days, the wrestling world has been met with rumors that Vince McMahon might be looking into a WWE comeback. However, some sources within the organization have expressed dissatisfaction with that idea, especially now that scandals involving McMahon continue to pop up.
The first time McMahon's behaviour became a source of headaches was this summer when the WWE board looked into payments amounting to over $12 million made by the former CEO to cover sexual harassment complaints, all of which naturally affected the company. McMahon led the WWE for 40 years, even long before its WWF days, but retired shortly after these controversies, leaving leadership duties to his daughter, Stephanie McMahon, and Nick Khan as joint CEOs.
Now, a new report from The Wall Street Journal specifies that letters addressed to McMahon's representatives from the lawyers of two different women. These letters demand compensation for damages stemming from McMahon allegedly raping a woman in a limousine three decades ago and another instance of unspecified sexual assault in a California spa resort dating back to 2011, as confirmed by the outlet. These two episodes hadn’t previously made headlines in the media, with the first potential victim seeking compensation for up to $11.75 million for the assault she suffered.
With all that in mind, it’s no surprise that current WWE management and staff are not thrilled about the prospects of McMahon coming back to the office, as mentioned by Fightful Select (via ComicBook), who compiled statements from several internal sources all voicing concern over the idea. Although some employees were not too rattled by the news, one source said, "It would be a really selfish move for Vince to come back under any circumstances.” The source noted that since his retirement, the WWE has been doing incredibly well on all fronts. Others hope McMahon will eventually be persuaded to back down.
One of the key components in the WWE's transformation after McMahon left has been former wrestling legend Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who’s gone on to become the Chief Content Officer for the company, leading the reversal of several policies put in place under McMahon. Despite the general economy shrinking and the stock market seeing negative numbers all across the board, the WWE's stock has gone up nearly 20% since McMahon left, and that's without John Cena.
All these changes have even contributed to making WWE 2K22 a much better game ahead of WWE 2K23's reveal, meaning business overall hasn’t been as great for quite a while, hence why McMahon could now be deemed surplus to requirements.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, ComicBook.com