For the segment of WWE fans and pro wrestling fans in general who wish that Vince McMahon would simply retire already and leave his creation in the hands of others, a report last month that he was selling about a third of his TKO stock was seen as a potential harbinger. Maybe he was ready to cash out and depart TKO, the thinking went.
Turns out only half of that was right.
As detailed by Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso, McMahon intends to stick around TKO and “still wields great power in the company.” His reason for selling was simple: He needed the cash.
Sources within WWE, however, shared that McMahon has no plans to leave the company. Though the reasons were undisclosed, Sports Illustrated learned that McMahon needed to have the money liquid, which is why he sold such a hefty portion of his stock.
Who knows why, but where most of us might go to the ATM when we need “to have the money liquid,” billionaires can simply sell a bunch of stock shares.
Barrasso added that McMahon is working on “items assigned to him by Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel” and that there are no signs their working relationship is anything but positive. Emanuel has praised McMahon publicly on several occasions since the merger deal between WWE and UFC that created TKO under the Endeavor corporate umbrella.
Hopes for McMahon to leave the company stemmed largely from the wishes of many fans to see Paul “Triple H” Levesque in charge of WWE creative, something that happened anyway under Emanuel’s oversight. It’s possible that everyone gets what they want out of this arrangement, at least for now.
And hey, the next time McMahon goes out for … well, whatever it is that billionaires eat, he definitely can take the bill.