A 2023 shareholder lawsuit alleged Vince McMahon and his allies essentially rigged the sale of WWE in favor Ari Emanuel and Endeavor because Emanuel promised he could keep McMahon on-board despite his scandals and investigations into them. In June of this year, not long after McMahon and WWE president Nick Khan were censured by the court for destroying evidence and the judge shifted the burden of proof from the plaintiffs to the defendants as a reult, a settlement was announced in the case.
Some of
the evidence that had been filed with the Delaware Court of Chancery was recently obtained by Post Wrestling’s Brandon Thurston and published by the site today (July 1). They consist of three audio recordings. Some have been transcribed in Thurston’s past reporting on the suit, but this is the first time the voice messages themselves have been available.
Listening to them, it’s hard to argue that the shareholders were completely off-base in calling the WWE/ Endeavor deal the result of a “sham sales process” orchestrated to ensure Vince could serve as TKO’s Executive Chairman by exluding “other bidders seeking to axe” him over his sexual misconduct & hush money scandals.
The first was dated Sept. 16, 2022, and was from Emanuel to McMahon indicating the deal would mean help with all of Vince’s non-criminal legal challenges:
“I spoke to my lawyer from Latham [high-end law firm Latham & Watkins, of which Endeavor has been a client for years]. Just FYI, everybody at the DOJ [U.S. Department of Justice, then investigating Vince in case that reportedly grew to include the allegations in Janel Grant’s since settled 2024 sex trafficking suit, and which was shut down not long after the 2024 election] is former Latham lawyers. So on that side, it will be helpful.
“ SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission, which eventually did fine McMahon related to his hush money payments], of course, is SEC, but that’s just the penalty. As it relates to everything else, yes, we can indemnify you, and we will. If it’s criminal, of course, you can’t stop criminal, but this is not criminal. Call me when you get a chance.”
Neither that message or the one from three days later gets into specifics of those legal challenges, other than Emanuel’s specification that he couldn’t help if McMahon ended up charged with a crime (this was well before Grant’s suit was filed). In this one, Ari offers a similarly vague “there’s ways around this” message to Vince:
“I really do think that we all need to get together and talk through all the issues, because I think whether it be the DOJ or anything, there’s ways around this to figure this out, and I don’t know what, you know, you’re hearing or thinking. So give me a call if you have five seconds.”
The final recording released today was of McMahon. Dated Dec. 13, 2022, McMahon is calling his banker from The Raine Group, Jeff Sine, to tell him to go ahead with the sale of WWE to Endeavor because “it solves a lot of problems”:
“Hey, Jeff. It’s 10:13 [p.m.]. Very good meeting with Ari and company. And I think and probably the best thing to do is to go forward with the deal with Ari.
”It solves a lot of problems. I, you know, again, together, I think it’s a stronger situation than either one of us on our own. But I’m pretty sure that’s the way I want to go now. It’s easier, faster and all that kind of stuff. So, let’s talk in the morning, and I didn’t commit to Ari, but let’s talk in the morning, and, and go. [Laughs.]
“Jeff, thank you so much. Sorry to call so late.”
We encourage you, as always, to follow Thurston and Post if you’re really interested in WWE and TKO-related business and legal news. Today’s report includes 2025 testimony from Khan that Stephanie McMahon tried to dissuade Vince from selling just before his call to Sine. That meeting was said to include Emanuel, his right-hand man and current TKO president Mark Shapiro, Khan, Stephanie, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, and Linda McMahon. Stephanie resigned when her father returned to WWE Board of Directors the next month, and the Endeavor deal was announced shortly after in April 2023.
The court won’t officially hear those, but you have. So do they change your judgment about the sale of WWE to Endeavor?
