WWE Shareholder Lawsuit Against Vince McMahon Over His WWE Return in 2023 & Sale to Endeavor Update –

As noted before, a group of WWE shareholders filed a lawsuit in November of 2023 against former TKO and WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon over claims that McMahon had engaged in a “sham sale process” for WWE’s sale to Endeavor. McMahon, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE President Nick Khan, and others executives were accused of destroying evidence related to the lawsuit. Both McMahon and Khan were sanctioned by the court this past May for destroying evidence related to the lawsuit case. An agreement in principle for a settlement deal was reached this past June resulting in the trial for the lawsuit being cancelled. McMahon and WWE’s portion of the settlement payment owed was revealed earlier this month to be around $147.5 million.

Post Wrestling and Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that the issues which had been delaying the finalization of the $147.5 million settlement owed by McMahon and WWE in the shareholders lawsuit appears to have been resolved based on recent court records.

Thurston reported that WWE defendants had described the disagreement as being a “narrow” one but haven’t provided much further detail about it.

Thurston reported that Ryan D. Stottmann, attorney representing WWE President Nick Khan, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque, and former WWE executives George Barrios and Michelle Wilson wrote in a letter filed on August 24 to the Delaware Court of Chancery stating:

“I write on behalf of the parties in response to the Court’s minute order (Dkt. 506) instructing that a joint update on the status of the settlement papers be filed by today. Defendants Khan, Levesque, Wilson, and Barrios (the “D&O Defendants”) and Non-Party TKO believe they have addressed the outstanding issues regarding the intra-defendant releases at issue, and are awaiting final signoff from certain non-party insurance carriers. The D&O Defendants and TKO understand that approval should be obtained promptly, and anticipate being able to provide signature authority for the stipulation of settlement immediately upon receiving that approval.”

In the court filings, the plaintiffs argued that approval from the insurers was not a condition of the settlement and should not be used as a reason to delay it being finalized.

WWE’s portion of the settlement payment is $105 million with TKO expecting around $75 million to be covered by their insurance and the remaining $42.5 million to be paid by McMahon and/or his insurance.