The lawsuit train keeps on rolling, but this time, it’s targeting WWE as a whole.
Vince McMahon stepped down from his positions as chairman and CEO last summer, effectively retiring after multiple allegations of sexual assault and hush money pacts came to light. As shocking as his retirement was, Vince McMahon reinstated himself to the WWE Board of Directors on January 6, 2023. Four days later, a unanimous vote elected Vince McMahon as the Executive Chairman of the Board.
Since his resurgence, McMahon has faced multiple lawsuits stemming from the previous allegations against him. Now, a suit has hit WWE itself.
Per Bloomberg, WWE investor Dennis Palkon hopes to bar McMahon from the Board of Directors with an expedition to uncover “internal files from WWE” that would assumably unbury the truth on the hush money transferred from McMahon to employees and contractors that he allegedly “raped and sexually assaulted” over multiple decades. The complaint made public in Delaware’s Chancery Court on Tuesday made their motives clear. “There are serious questions about how Vince McMahon obtained and delivered those funds to his victims.”
The respective suit, filed on January 26, also claims that McMahon believes “that the rules do not apply to him,” as seen in his staged “coup” of the board upon his return. Forcibly removing Alan Wexler, JoEllen Lyons Dillon, and Jeffrey Speed from the Board of Directors, McMahon appointed himself and “two of his longtime cronies” in their place. Per the direction of the suit, these actions displayed “a flagrant disregard for basic corporate governance norms.”
Though this isn’t the first complaint involving Vince McMahon, it is the first to seek company documents. Under state law, corporate investors, like Palkon, receive broad inspection rights. If the records in question unseal and lead to fiduciary breach claims, the “plaintiff intends to achieve what the board wanted to, but could not in light of Vince McMahon’s thuggery.”
In the end, the suit ultimately aimed “to bar Vince McMahon from ever serving on the WWE board again.”
