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WWE Thread

According to reports, Brock Lesnar has walked out of tonight’s Smackdown. Supposedly he said, “if he’s out, I’m out”.
Brock came back and destroyed Theory at the end of Smackdown to close the show.
 
Market seems to have reacted quite well to the retiring of Vince from all capacities. (seemed to be a concern based on the Friday post close news)

WWE stock is up nearly 8% today.
May also indicate that the market is more convinced that they will be bought which tends to trigger the share price.
 
Triple H is officially head of creative now. Hopefully that means good riddance to Kevin Dunn and his camera shaking and cuts. It should also mean that Bruce Prichard has been demoted. Also with the Mr. Hs comfirmation.. friendly reminder that WWE will be moving back to TV-14. These can only be good things for their brand.
 
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Triple H is officially head of creative now. Hopefully that means good riddance to Kevin Dunn and his camera shaking and cuts. It should also mean that Bruce Prichard has been demoted. Also with the Mr. Hs comfirmation.. friendly reminder that WWE will be moving back to TV-14. These can only be good things for their brand.
I liked Creative when he was in charge of NXT. Definitely more of a wrestling product. I'm SURE that he'll get rid of the Vince-isms.

Keep in mind, though, that NXT got its clock cleaned by AEW. And Triple HHH was demoted, and the product was completely changed. IMO, for the worst.

I worry about Triple HHH's health though, as apparently there was nobody else ready to do these multiple jobs--head of Talent Relations and now Head of Creative. That's a lot of stress.
 
I liked Creative when he was in charge of NXT. Definitely more of a wrestling product. I'm SURE that he'll get rid of the Vince-isms.

Keep in mind, though, that NXT got its clock cleaned by AEW. And Triple HHH was demoted, and the product was completely changed. IMO, for the worst.

I worry about Triple HHH's health though, as apparently there was nobody else ready to do these multiple jobs--head of Talent Relations and now Head of Creative. That's a lot of stress.
Same here. The black and gold NXT brand was the best thing going for WWE... until Vince/Nick Kahn started releasing everyone and demoted HHH.

I bet we'll see some talent return sooner rather than later... like Johnny Gargano, Kross, etc. I could see some current AEW guys coming back like Andrade, Adam Cole, etc.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him pull Sasha Banks (& Naomi) back in. She won her 1st title 6 years ago when HHH was in charge of creative.

Definitely concerned about Mr. Hs health as he takes on yet another stressful job. If anyone can handle it, Paul can.

Just came across this. Pretty funny...
 
Same here. The black and gold NXT brand was the best thing going for WWE... until Vince/Nick Kahn started releasing everyone and demoted HHH.

I bet we'll see some talent return sooner rather than later... like Johnny Gargano, Kross, etc. I could see some current AEW guys coming back like Andrade, Adam Cole, etc.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him pull Sasha Banks (& Naomi) back in. She won her 1st title 6 years ago when HHH was in charge of creative.

Definitely concerned about Mr. Hs health as he takes on yet another stressful job. If anyone can handle it, Paul can.

Just came across this. Pretty funny...
Y'know, it'll also be real interesting to see what happens with NXT. Vince dumped HHH from the black-and-gold, and created the new virtually-unwatchable format.

Another thing (yes, I overthink things b/c it's fun to overthink things), Triple H always built real well to the NXT PPV's, which were uniformly great. Sometimes the weekly show suffered as a result.

However, WWE doesn't need to build to PPV's any more, since the $$'s are guaranteed by Peacock. How will he adapt to the new normal?
 
Y'know, it'll also be real interesting to see what happens with NXT. Vince dumped HHH from the black-and-gold, and created the new virtually-unwatchable format.

Another thing (yes, I overthink things b/c it's fun to overthink things), Triple H always built real well to the NXT PPV's, which were uniformly great. Sometimes the weekly show suffered as a result.

However, WWE doesn't need to build to PPV's any more, since the $$'s are guaranteed by Peacock. How will he adapt to the new normal?
Agreed. The weekly shows need HHH to get them both right and on top again. Maybe he lets Shawn run NXT similar to what it was (HHH's black & gold). This 2.0 version is not good.
 
BREAKING:

From Wrestling Observer:

"SEC and federal inquiries into Vince McMahon’s hush money payments drove him to announce his retirement from the company quicker, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.

The new report says that people familiar with the matter believed that McMahon chose to resign on Friday after the Security and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors launched investigations into hush money payments that McMahon made to keep sexual relationships and sexual misconduct quiet."

WWE reported today that they would make changes to recent earning reports due to about $14 mill that was unaccounted for, but was paid to McMahon. He has said that he will repay the money to WWE.

A sleaze right to the end.
 
BREAKING:

From Wrestling Observer:

"SEC and federal inquiries into Vince McMahon’s hush money payments drove him to announce his retirement from the company quicker, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.

The new report says that people familiar with the matter believed that McMahon chose to resign on Friday after the Security and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors launched investigations into hush money payments that McMahon made to keep sexual relationships and sexual misconduct quiet."

WWE reported today that they would make changes to recent earning reports due to about $14 mill that was unaccounted for, but was paid to McMahon. He has said that he will repay the money to WWE.

A sleaze right to the end.
No doubt.

Good timing for HHH. This is his first Raw in charge, and they are in MSG the week before Summer Slam.

P.S.
Roman just told Theory, "Your Daddy is gone."
 
BREAKING:

From Wrestling Observer:

"SEC and federal inquiries into Vince McMahon’s hush money payments drove him to announce his retirement from the company quicker, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.

The new report says that people familiar with the matter believed that McMahon chose to resign on Friday after the Security and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors launched investigations into hush money payments that McMahon made to keep sexual relationships and sexual misconduct quiet."

WWE reported today that they would make changes to recent earning reports due to about $14 mill that was unaccounted for, but was paid to McMahon. He has said that he will repay the money to WWE.

A sleaze right to the end.

Agree 100% that Vince is a sleaze, but he was not paid for these settlements.

That being said some of the wrestling media needs to stick to creative issues and not interpreting business or financial information, because many of them are not good at that! The bolded comment above is not accurate at all. I suspect they misinterpreted the "or will" part in the 8-K disclosure. This has resulted in fans across the country saying there was embezzlement, fraud, and other wild things.

Its odd because Meltzer himself had it reported right today on the POST Podcast on Toronto, but whomever wrote the article on the observer site did not have it right.

Not trying to defend scummy Vince at all (he clearly deserves his fate), but some of these interpretations bother me on a professional level.

Here is the paragraph in today's WWE 8-K
"The Company has made a preliminary determination that certain payments that Vince McMahon agreed to make during the period from 2006 through 2022 (including amounts paid and payable in the future), and that were not recorded in the WWE consolidated financial statements, should have been recorded as expenses in the quarters in which those agreements were made (the “Unrecorded Expenses”). As of the date hereof, the Company has identified Unrecorded Expenses totaling approximately $14.6 million. All payments underlying the Unrecorded Expenses were or will be paid by Vince McMahon personally"

Not sure if some are getting confused with the "or will" part. The "or will" part does not imply that the WWE made any payments -- it relates to the fact that the settlements had instalment payments, some of which Vince has not yet been required to make (think of the one disclosed in the first WSJ article which laid out this structure). The WWE has to word it that way because that is the way accounting works. The unrecorded expense is for the full settlement not what has been paid to date.

The Accounting Issue in Simpler Context (Maybe)
It's not a simple accounting issue because the company has not made a payment, and might not be reimbursing the party who made the payment. So where is the expense? But that is not always the case when the company has a clear benefit from an agreement, especially one signed by one of its officers.

Since we are talking wrestling I will use an example with violence. Jim and Bob are co-workers. Jim pisses off Bob at work, Bob responds by going to Jim's office and giving him fourteen chair shots causing severe trauma to Jim's head. Bob agrees to personally pay Jim $100,000 (he feels personally paying it will appease his employee) - but as part of the agreement Jim agrees that he will not sue or further pursue Bob or his employer. This agreement is also signed by their boss, a signing officer of the company. The company has paid and will pay nothing -- but they have clearly benefitted from this agreement since they will not be sued or have to pay further damages because of the agreement which one of their officers signed. Therefore the $100,000 should be recorded as an expense on the books of the company.

Essentially Vince, an officer of the WWE, signed an agreement that exonerated both Vince personally and most likely the WWE of future damages. So while the WWE paid nothing, and only Vince was aware of the settlements (and paid them), clearly the WWE benefitted from the agreement since they would no longer be sued, and they would not have pay any damages for something done by one of its employees. So even if they will never pay a thing that benefit should be recorded as an expense. The expense was missed by the WWE in the past, because Vince kept most of these settlements and agreements to himself and a small circle that probably did not include the CFO or reporting team.


Its not your standard fraud. Vince did not take or steal any money from the company. But he certainly signed some material agreements that should have been reported to / and or approved by the board or disclosed. But we know why he hid them and it resulted in material information not being disclosed to the public. Not sure if its fraud, but its very likely a significant SEC violation and violation of his employment agreement. And certainly was one of the primary factors that led to his demise.
 
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I liked Creative when he was in charge of NXT. Definitely more of a wrestling product. I'm SURE that he'll get rid of the Vince-isms.

Keep in mind, though, that NXT got its clock cleaned by AEW. And Triple HHH was demoted, and the product was completely changed. IMO, for the worst.

I worry about Triple HHH's health though, as apparently there was nobody else ready to do these multiple jobs--head of Talent Relations and now Head of Creative. That's a lot of stress.

Even though NXT had WWE resources behind them, I always wondered whether it a fair fight? And thought HHH may have got a bum rap.

- The AEW had more core talent initially(stand to be corrected) even though it is levels below what it has now. The NXT did not have a Jericho, Rhodes, Moxley, Omega.
- NXT was still somewhat of a feeder / minor league whose biggest names had moved on to WWE (to often get ignored)
- Not like WWE marketed NXT much on their feature programming (RAW)
.
NXT was still a quality product that was doing well, even if below the AEW. Sometimes you just lose to a great product -- and you have to look at what you did beyond just the L. But of course that is not how Vince would look at it.

The proof is in whatever NXT has become.
 
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Just thinking of wrestlers that HHH will likely have changed back to what they were.

How much longer do you think Pete Dunne stays as "Butch" who basically acts like a rabid wrestler.
 
Dwight has the look and is a character (& is obviously an athlete). Could be something there...
 
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