-- One of WWE's top executives, Chris Legentil, recently appeared on Sports Media with Richard Deitsch where he discussed a number of topics including his role as head of talent relations and communications, negotiating wrestler contracts, as well as offering some comments on CM Punk, Ronda Rousey and the ongoing Vince McMahon legal issue. He also had a brief response to rumors of a future WWE-AEW joint show that Tony Khan said he would love to see. Below are some highlights:
- On whether a show with AEW could happen, Legentil ended that quickly by saying WWE has "no interest" in such an initiative, and then later softened his stance very slightly by saying while there are some excellent wrestlers outside of WWE, there have been no conversations about it and that there's "no shot" being fired with his comments.
- He noted that a small team consisting of himself, Nick Khan, Paul Levesque and a few others are the ones who negotiate talent contracts. He pointed out that there are multiple factors that ultimately end up deciding who to sign, re-sign or let go including what the market bears, social media numbers, viewership numbers on TV for the segment the wrestler is in, and more. Using a combination of all those factors, the group comes up with a number that is fair for both talent and WWE; once details like years, compensation, outside activities, etc. are agreed upon, it then goes to the company's legal team for review. He put over Levesque as the main guy running the talent relations machine.
- He noted that CM Punk has been fantastic to work with in the eight months in which he has been back with WWE. Punk has been eager to help in areas outside of his main responsibilities and he made it a point to say that this is an example of how you can't judge someone just by their reputation and instead of have to experience the person for yourself.
- On Ronda Rousey, he said that they "love" her and that if she is truly interested in coming back, they would be happy to have that conversation with her. Lengentil stated that Rousey has been great to work with in the past.
- When Lengentil was asked about the Vince McMahon lawsuit, he shared that there is only so much that they can comment on, but overall, the company has been fully complaint with the investigation and all their active legal cases. When WWE has an opportunity to answer questions, they do and when they can't comment, they don't.
