Endeavor Executives Anticipated Vince McMahon’s 2023 WWE Return

The executives were plotting for McMahon’s return.

There’s an exclusive story up on POST Wrestling via Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics. It has to do with Vince McMahon’s return to WWE in January 2023 being anticipated by executives at Endeavor, which is the company that went on to acquire WWE in 2023. McMahon was a part of that transaction process.

When Vince McMahon announced his resignation/retirement from WWE in 2022 after sexual misconduct allegations emerged, a top executive at Endeavor had been relaying to colleagues on the same day that McMahon would only be gone temporarily.

After McMahon’s resignation, Endeavor President and TKO Chief Operating Officer, Mark Shapiro, sent the following message to Endeavor and TKO CEO Ari Emanuel and fellow Endeavor execs (POST Wrestling included photographic evidence of the text messages):

Nick and Stephanie are going to take over the WWE for the next nine months. Vince [will] be back with a new board or he will take the company private or he will sell it/coming to us. The race is on. The courtship is on.

Vince McMahon was back in the fold of WWE less than six months later. He was back on the Board of Directors after reinstating himself by using his superior voting power as the controlling shareholder.

The text message from Shapiro was disclosed in the WWE shareholder lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court. The plaintiffs in that case allege that McMahon violated his legal and ethical obligation to act in the best interests of the shareholders, but instead of doing that, he helped move along the sale process to keep his own power.

There was communication between McMahon and Ari Emanuel throughout the backend of 2022.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are presenting the stance that McMahon and Emanuel had a friendship that would make sure McMahon stayed with WWE after the sale to Endeavor. On the other side of the spectrum, other potential suitors would have required Vince to leave WWE immediately. Vince denied that.

WWE President Nick Khan, Chief Content Officer Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, and former executives/Board members George Barrios and Michelle Wilson are being represented by TKO’s outside counsel. They’re being accused of being on board with McMahon’s plan to preserve his power. McMahon has separate counsel.

POST/Thurston reached out to WWE, TKO, and Vince McMahon’s reps for a comment on this story, but the requests were not responded to.

As mentioned, while McMahon was publicly retired, he had been in communication with Ari Emanuel. While they were exchanging messages, Emanuel told McMahon, “I will be your greatest partner.”

It was also revealed that several days after that August 2022 exchange, Emanuel texted McMahon and said he knew that McMahon met with Jeff Sine the day prior. Sine is a senior banker at Raine Group, who served as WWE’s financial advisor in the sale to Endeavor. Included on Sine’s extensive advisory résumé is that he advised Vince McMahon on his XFL revival.

Sine chatted with McMahon and said if things were to move forward, he would like to work for McMahon and McMahon only — not Ari Emanuel or Endeavor. He told McMahon that Morgan Stanley was not prepared to represent him.

The iteration of the deal that left Endeavor with less equity was the one that would lock in McMahon’s future with the company. The shareholders are positioning the situation as other bidders would have insisted that McMahon leave WWE, but WWE’s stance is that they did not have to give up anything to assure McMahon’s future. Endeavor gave WWE more equity to keep McMahon, which asserted his importance.

The article write-up has a section about Vince McMahon texting Nick Khan about WWE creative, per the court filings. Below is a text exchange from McMahon that he copied and pasted and sent to Khan. In the copy and pasted texts was a conversation McMahon was having with Paul Levesque and Bruce Prichard about the creative for Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes’ Undisputed WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 39:

Text from me to Paul and Bruce: “Hey guys just double checking. Does Roman [Reigns] and Cody [Rhodes] know the new creative re [WrestleMania] and next year ?”

Bruce : “Not to my knowledge. I don’t know if Paul has had a conversation with either. Roman’s first appearance since we spoke is Friday in DC. Both will be there in person.”

Me to Paul: “ Paul have U “?

The shareholders in the lawsuit are not concerned with McMahon’s involvement in WWE creative, but are focused on these discussions amongst executives being relegated to the Signal chat app, which has an auto-delete function. The shareholders argue that key communications were not preserved on Signal, which would be a loophole of sorts to get around special preservation measures during mergers and acquisitions. If the messages weren’t properly maintained, it could factor into the outcome of the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs asked the court to order Nick Khan, Ari Emanuel, Paul Levesque, and Brad Blum (former WWE exec/McMahon aide) to sit down with attorneys and take screenshots of any relevant messages they have on the devices on which Signal was downloaded. The decision on that order is still pending.

The lawsuit is nearing the end of discovery.

After the TKO deal was finalized in September 2023, it secured multimillion-dollar bonuses for Nick Khan and Paul Levesque. The shareholders allege that those bonuses are what encouraged executives to go through with McMahon’s plan to keep his power.

The WWE and UFC merger under TKO guaranteed McMahon a lifetime role with TKO unless he resigned. He resigned in January 2024 after former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a sex trafficking lawsuit against McMahon, WWE, and John Laurinaitis. The former WWE exec, Laurinaitis, has since been dropped from the ongoing suit after agreeing to provide evidence for Grant’s case.

If the plaintiffs in the shareholders’ suit emerge victorious, they could recover financial damages on behalf of stockholders and financial institutions that held WWE shares during the specified period of time.

The merger lawsuit is going to trial in June 2026.

source: fightful.com

Bruce Prichard And Michael Hayes On Temporary Leave From WWE

Longtime WWE creative members Bruce Prichard and Michael Hayes are currently on leave, according to a new report.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reports that Bruce Prichard, 61, and Michael Hayes, 65, are currently on temporary leave, per multiple WWE sources, The report notes that both are expected back. However, the timeframe is said to be indefinite.

Meltzer writes that Bruce Prichard’s absence is officially said to be due to a family emergency. Meanwhile, personal issues are the reason for Hayes’ absence.

The report notes that there is no connection between the two being on leave. Sources in WWE emphasized that it was not a sign of the “old guard being moved out.” They reiterated that both would be back.

Bruce Prichard has been a key figure of the WWE creative team, even after Vince McMahon’s departure, and he works directly under Triple H. Hayes has been with WWE since 1995, and he has been a high-ranking member of the creative team for years.

Hayes has consistently worked on the Bloodline storyline in recent years, as he has consistently been the agent for the matches and segments involved.

JBL: Triple H Is The Only One Who Could Have Taken Over For Vince McMahon

The latest legend to chime in with support for Paul Levesque is John Bradshaw Layfield. Even though he's currently on a world tour of sorts as the guardian of wrestling, making appearances in TNA Wrestling, Major League Wrestling, and Game Changer Wrestling, JBL took the time to talk about Triple H during a recent Q&A with Sportskeeda.

Bradshaw says he's amazed by what has been done since the new regime took over and believes that Triple H is the only one who could have taken over for Vince McMahon.

"Triple H is the only one, to me, that could have taken over for Vince. He’s not only taken over and kept the company the same, they made it better. What they’re doing is just amazing. The billion dollar TV contracts, the crowds they are drawing. I am blown away by what he and Nick Khan together, and the entire team, Bruce Prichard and all the guys, what they’ve done. It’s absolutely amazing to me."

source: fightful.com

Bruce Pritchard Named New Interim Head Of Talent Relations To Replace John Laurinaitis

WWE issued a memo to talents Monday evening following “Raw” announcing that Senior VP Bruce Prichard will be taking over as the Interim Head of Talent Relations effective immediately, according to PWInsider.

The memo also informed talents that John Laurinaitis has been placed on “administrative leave” in light of the serious allegations made against him and Vince McMahon. The memo added that Laurinaitis will not be on the road with WWE “pending the conclusion of our Board of Directors’ internal investigation.”

As noted earlier, Laurinaitis hasn’t been on the road since the WWE Board of Directors’ investigation was publicly revealed last week.

In the explosive Wall Street Journal story that dropped last week, it was alleged that McMahon had a consensual relationship with a WWE paralegal, and later agreed to a $3 million settlement in January 2022 to bar the person from commenting on the affair. While the investigation, which began on March 30, initially focused on McMahon’s settlement with the 41-year-old woman, it has since expanded into NDA agreements involving misconduct claims made by other former female WWE employees about McMahon and Laurinaitis.

Rumor Mill - Vince McMahon And Bruce Prichard Reportedly Producing The WWE NXT Brand With Revamp

WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon and Senior Vice President & Executive Director Bruce Prichard are set to produce the WWE NXT brand moving forward.

As we’ve noted, NXT will return to airing live weekly shows on the USA Network beginning with the September 14 episode, which will feature the wedding of Dexter Lumis and Indi Hartwell. This will mark a reset for the brand, with a new logo, new theme song, a new look for the weekly show, and a new creative direction.

It was noted by Bryan Alvarez on today’s edition of Wrestling Observer Live that McMahon and Prichard will be producing the weekly NXT TV show when the brand returns to live TV later this month.

Furthermore, Dave Meltzer adds that McMahon and Prichard will be behind the big decisions for the NXT brand, but not the smaller ones. They will also be responsible for marketing, promotion and direction of the NXT brand.

Regarding NXT creative, it was noted that McMahon and Prichard may be only be booking the wrestlers at the top of the brand.

Word is that NXT will be like “the old NXT” moving forward, which appears to be a reference to how the brand was at its peak, around 2015-2018 or so.

There’s no word yet on what the changes will mean for Triple H and his team, which includes WWE Hall of Famers Shawn Michaels and “Road Dogg” BG James, but we will keep you updated.

WWE President & Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan recently confirmed that there will be a complete revamp for the NXT brand coming soon. You can click here to read his comments.

As noted, rapper Wale recently revealed a bright new color-changing logo for the NXT brand, and a snippet of the new NXT theme song, which includes several familiar hip-hop samples. That same teaser has aired on WWE TV and social media this week. You can see those teasers below.

Nick Khan Comments On Recent Releases

“There’s a collective of us, keep in mind at WWE their is one boss, that’s Vince as we all know. Between Bruce Prichard who oversees the entire creative process, Kevin Dunn, who oversees all of our production, Stephanie McMahon, Paul Levesque are all involved in these decisions, with ultimately Vince making the final decision on everything”

“I don’t know if there is one explanation for it, ultimately what’s looked at, ‘Is this person for us going move to the needle now or in the imminent future’. ‘We signed a dozen new talent, we’re always looking for what’s next. We live in the present, we live in the future, 7 don’t live in the past”

Eric Bischoff Replaced By Bruce Prichard As Executive Director Of WWE Friday Night SmackDown

WWE announced that Bruce Prichard will replace Eric Bischoff as the Executive Director of WWE Friday Night SmackDown. Prichard will report directly to WWEChairman & CEO Vince McMahon.

Prichard will oversee the creative development of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX and ensure integration across all platforms and lines of business.

WWE had named Bischoff as the Executive Director of WWE SmackDown this past June, while also appointing Paul Heyman as the Executive Director of WWE RAW. There had been reports over recent months about Bischoff not being heavily involved with the SmackDown creative process.

Bruce Prichard discusses how TNA botched Bobby Roode’s contract talks in 2013, Dixie Carter’s mishandling of talent pay

On this week’s episode of Bruce Prichard’s podcast “Something To Wrestle With,” the main topic of discussion was Prichard’s run with TNA Wrestling. Prichard joined the company in 2010 and eventually became VP of Talent Relations. He worked with TNA until July of 2013.

There are tons of TNA stories included in the podcast but one of the most interesting stories is about former TNA World Champion Bobby Roode. Prichard said that, in 2013, Roode’s contract was supposed to roll over for another year so essentially TNA had the option to extend it for one more year. Prichard said that he signed it well ahead of time and he had the emails and copy of the signature. Prichard said that he got a call from Roode saying that his contract expires in 3 days and he had not heard anything from the TNA office. Prichard responded, “Bobby, I sent you an extension. I signed your roll over a couple of months ago.” Prichard then forwarded the email to Roode but this was the first time that he had heard about any of this. Roode’s contract stipulated that he had the option to negotiate elsewhere if TNA did not sign off on the rollover.

Prichard went to the person that was supposed to mail out the original signed contract that was supposed to be sent to Roode and he says that the person told him that she mailed it out so he asked for a copy of the bill showing that it was mailed out. Prichard said that her face (the person at the TNA office) kind of went white like she saw a ghost and said “well, I don’t know if I can get that.” Prichard was told that there was a problem with their FedEx account so they were only using UPS. Prichard knew at that point that the roll over contract was never sent out to Roode. Prichard said that “the folks that were in charge of actually doing that felt that Bobby Roode wasn’t necessarily necessary and that if his contract expired then they wouldn’t be obligated to pay him what his contract called for and they could renegotiate at a lower rate. The problem with that is that Bobby Roode was worth every penny that he was being paid [and] probably more. The other thing about it was that we had him figured into our [creative] plans. We had long-term plans with Bobby.”

More?

Update on the Bruce Prichard firing and Stephanie Pushing Creative

According to reports, Stephanie McMahon has reportedly been shaking up the creative department since returning from maternity leave. McMahon's first step was to push for the removal of Bruce Pritchard, who had been with the company for a long time and more changes may lie ahead. She is pushing the creative team to come up with better, meatier story lines and is not allowing them to phone it in on particular programs.

Pricard had not been at TV for the past two weeks. Stephanie has apparently held a negative view of him for a few years, finding many of the segments and feuds he's been in charge of, have been done lazy or half-heartedly.

In the past, he was an important member of the creative team, but no so much in recent months. He had also largely lost contact with Vince. He was supposed to attend meetings at WWE's headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut two weeks every month, but recently, it was more like two days every 8 to 10 weeks. The creative team was not given a reason regarding his dismissal from the company.

That would obviously explain more focus recently, especially on Raw, on the Intercontinental title and mid card feuds. Stephanie saw Pritchard as the chief yes-man for Vince and not be someone who would challenge him in meetings. In the past, he had been considered an important piece of the creative machine at WWE, but over the past few years, had fallen off and appeared to be disinterested.

Rumor Mill - Bruce Prichard Released

PWInsider.com reports that longtime WWE producer Bruce Prichard has been released by the company. No further details are known at the moment. More info when it becomes available.