Vince McMahon was initially told that his position was safe.
With there being many job losses and changes in personnel following the creation of TKO Holdings, few would have predicted that McMahon himself would have been one of these casualties. Despite looking like a key figure moving forward when the merger was first announced, Vince McMahon was removed from the WWE creative process after Endeavor effectively “Knighted” Triple H.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer revealed that McMahon was originally told that his creative decisions would not be challenged, but things have changed since the merger was finalised:
He’s out of creative. I mean, this is a big story because, you know, Ari Emanuel when they were on the verge of closing the deal, and they had actually closed the deal in April. They went and did media rounds, and it’s like, Vince will be in charge of the company. And if me and Vince have a disagreement, it goes the way Vince wants because Vince is the guy. And then, you know, the deal went through, you know, it really only went through about what was it, about a month ago?
Yeah, it’s like a month ago it went through and already Vince’s is like, out of creative because of Ari Emanuel, you know. So I think this is a real interesting thing, because it is the first time that Vince is now in the position that his father was in, in 84, when his father had run the company for years and years and years, and he was just an employee of Vince, Vince Jr. Although he hates the term Jr, Vincent Kennedy McMahon. And, you know, Vincent Kennedy McMahon was the guy making all the decisions and now, Vince was in fact, overruled.
Even though when he sold the company, he was told that, or merged the company, he was told this would not happen. It did happen. And it’s a really interesting thing. And you know, that statement, when Ari Emanuel was talking about, you know, the reasons the stock is down, and he mentioned Vince’s name. So it is very interesting, I think, what it is going to happen, or, you know, but Vince’s powers are clearly marginalised. I mean, there’s no way around that.
Ari Emanuel Blames Vince McMahon
When the company renewed the media rights for SmackDown, despite there being a 40% increase compared to the deal with FOX, shareholders expected there to be more. When discussing why the new deal was not as high as originally intended, Ari Emmanuel stated that Vince McMahon’s presence was partially responsible.
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