History Trivia / VinceMcMahon

** Vince resigned as chairman and CEO of WWE in June 2022 amid an internal investigation that he allegedly paid $12 million in hush money to hide affairs with four former female employees, additionally revealing [=NDAs=] he and executive John Laurinaitis made with other female employees regarding sexual misconduct. When the SEC launched an investigation that he allegedly paid $14.6 million in "unrecorded expenses" in 2019 -- forcing WWE to restate its financial results for 2019, 2020 and 2021 as well as seemingly confirming the merits of the above investigation -- this led to him announcing his full-blown retirement in July 2022, with his daughter [[Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon Stephanie]] taking over in the interim as chairwoman and co-CEO, while his son-in-law Wrestling/TripleH took over as content director.

** The ''real'' killing blow would arrive near the end of January 2024 only days before that year's ''Royal Rumble'', when ex-employee Janel Grant filed a new lawsuit against Vince, complete with horrific accusations of rape and even sex trafficking, along with ample evidence to back the accusations up. Shortly after the lawsuit became public knowledge, [[https://www.hausofwrestling.com/2024/01/26/slim-jim-reportedly-notifies-wwe-they-are-pulling-their-sponsorship/ the first domino to fall was Slim Jim reportedly pulling their sponsorship from WWE]], with the implication that more such dominoes would fall as long as Vince was with the company. Vince would resign completely from [=TKO=] and WWE later that same evening, and although he maintained his innocence, TKO has began gradually scrubbing him from their current-day image, with president Mark Shapiro claiming that [[PersonaNonGrata he will]] ''[[PersonaNonGrata never]]'' [[PersonaNonGrata return]].

** The ''real'' killing blow would arrive near the end of January 2024 only days before that year's ''Royal Rumble'', when ex-employee Janel Grant filed a new lawsuit against Vince, complete with horrific accusations of rape and even sex trafficking, along with ample evidence to back the accusations up. Shortly after the lawsuit became public knowledge, [[https://www.hausofwrestling.com/2024/01/26/slim-jim-reportedly-notifies-wwe-they-are-pulling-their-sponsorship/ the first domino to fall was Slim Jim reportedly pulling their sponsorship from WWE]], with the implication that more such dominoes would fall as long as Vince was with the company. Vince would resign completely from [=TKO=] and WWE later that same evening, and although he maintained his innocence, TKO has began gradually scrubbing him from their current-day image, with president Mark Shapiro claiming that he will ''never'' return.

** The ''real'' killing blow would arrive near the end of January 2024 only days before that year's ''Royal Rumble'', when ex-employee Janel Grant filed a new lawsuit against Vince, complete with horrific accusations of rape and even sex trafficking, along with ample evidence to back the accusations up. Shortly after the lawsuit became public knowledge, [[https://www.hausofwrestling.com/2024/01/26/slim-jim-reportedly-notifies-wwe-they-are-pulling-their-sponsorship/ the first domino to fall was Slim Jim reportedly pulling their sponsorship from WWE]], with the implication that more such dominoes would fall as long as Vince was with the company. Vince would resign completely from [=TKO=] and WWE later that same evening, though he maintained his innocence.

** This ended up being backpedaled in January 2023 [[TenMinuteRetirement when he came out of retirement and forced himself back into the company]], primarily due to upcoming media rights negotiations and a potential sale of the company -- because he was still a majority shareholder at the time, he claimed that no media rights deals or company sales can be completed without his approval. [[GoneHorriblyRight However, this didn't result in much in his favor]] -- a deal was eventually finalized between WWE and Endeavor, but while Vince was granted a lifetime chairman position, [[KickedUpstairs he was also reduced to a minority ownership position]] (marking the first time in WWE/F history when a [=McMahon=] wasn't in majority ownership of the company), and was also permanently removed from creative control, a decision personally made by Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, who was fully aware of Vince's shenanigans[[note]]During a Q3 2023 SEC filing, the TKO Group (the new encompassing business entity following the WWE/Endeavor merger) outright listed Vince [=McMahon=] as a "significant risk", describing him as being necessary for the merger to occur but otherwise a problematic liability due to his chronic scandals, as well as his advanced age[[/note]] and as well as the noticeable improvement in WWE's business following Triple H taking over as head of creative, opting for the latter to keep his position. In short, while this series of events didn't completely remove him from the WWE, this has significantly iced him from any of the meaningful power he used to have, effectively rendering him an AuthorityInNameOnly.

** The ''real'' killing blow would arrive near the end of January 2024 only days before that year's ''Royal Rumble'', when ex-employee Janel Grant filed a new lawsuit against Vince, complete with horrific accusations of rape and even sex trafficking with ample evidence to back the accusations up. Vince would resign completely from [=TKO=] and WWE by Friday evening.

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: A complicated, zig-zagging DeathOfAThousandCuts example: %%While Vince's January 2024 resignation is all but certain to be the definitive end of his presence in WWE in any shape of form, the example cannot be added until February 9th, 2024

** Further allegations emerged in 2024 that he'd paid hush money to a former employee and then reneged on the payments after only paying a third of the agreed sum. The allegations involved said employee being only employed to perform sexual favours for Vince and other employees. As a result, he resigned from the board of the TKO group, although some, such as Ronda Rousey, allege that he still has a hand in the company via Bruce Pritchard.