-- The Hollywood Reporter published an article today, revealing more details in the backstage dynamics that were at play after WWE was rocked by the lawsuit launched against them and Vince McMahon and McMahon's subsequent resignation.
-- According to the story, after the lawsuit went public and WWE's biggest sponsor - Slim Jim - paused their sponsorship in Royal Rumble, TKO executives Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro called Vince and told him that it would be in his best interest if he resigned from the company to which Vince agreed. The story added that Endeavor - which has long struggled with sponsorship for UFC - was not going to stand around and let Slim Jim walk away due to McMahon. Emanuel, Shapiro and other TKO execs were said to be taken by surprise at the details of the graphic lawsuit.
-- According to the report, WWE's long-term TV deals with Netflix, NBCU and CW are not considered to be at risk and TKO's executive team immediately went into damage control and reached out to all of their partners after the news broke. With WWE's streaming rights deal for premium live events coming up due in 2026, it was a no-brainer that McMahon simply had to go. As for the Netflix deal, the report cites a source speculating that if the lawsuit was filed earlier, that deal could have been put into jeopardy. At the same time, Netflix has an opt-out clause after five years which would seem plenty of time for the company to assess whether the McMahon scandal was continuing to bog down WWE.
