September 2022 was a huge month for the business side of WWE: On top of officially closing their deal with Endeavor to merge with UFC and form TKO Group Holdings, the company also secured a new five-year deal for WWE SmackDown which will see the blue brand return to NBCUniversal’s USA Network in 2024. Following the announcement of the latter, however, TKO Group Holdings’ stock plummeted by 18% and it has now come to light that Vince McMahon was part of the reason why.
Last night, TKO CEO Ari Emanuel was interviewed as part of the Opening Night of the Bloomberg Screentime conference. During the conversation, he discussed the company’s stock dropping from $100.85 per share to just $85.97 per share following the announcement of SmackDown’s new rights deal back on September 21st. Emanuel attributed the downturn to three major factors, one of which involves Executive Chairman Vince McMahon.
“So I would say to you, there’s plenty of interest with Raw right now,” Emanuel stated. “I know people were like ‘NBC is out of the mix’ and that’s why it went down’. I think there’s three things that happened: One, the reason the stock is down is they thought Raw was the best package, I saw a 40% increase which was in line with expectation which was good. Two, the PFL situation and three, Vince (McMahon) in our deal wanted to be able to put, at any point in time, his stock. He’s 78 years old, he’s been working at this for decades and decades. So I think those three back-to-back issues…”
McMahon also made headlines earlier this week when it was reported that Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque had regained creative control of WWE from the 78-year-old. Haus of Wrestling was able to add exclusive details to the report, with our own Nick Hausman noting that a WWE source said that Levesque was back in charge a few weeks ago and that the federal investigation Vince is currently subject to may have been a factor in the move.
Haus of Wrestling has partnered with Inside The Ropes to present An Afternoon With Kevin Nash And Sean Waltman on November 25 at Joe’s Live in Rosemont, IL, ten minutes from the All-State Arena. Tickets are now available at JoesLiveRosemont.com.
If you use any quotes from this article, please give a h/t to Haus of Wrestling and credit Bloomberg Screentime.