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The summer of 2022 saw a dark and damaging cloud hang over WWE. Stark evidence surfaced that the now-former CEO, Vince McMahon, had paid tens of millions of dollars to women as hush money. To the surprise of everybody in the wrestling world, McMahon tapped out in July, resigning from his position as CEO. After the initial shock of the news, it seemed like the wrestling world was more than ready to move on - but Vince may have other plans.
On Tuesday, December 13th, another Wall Street Journal article was released. The article featured the re-emergence of a decades-old rape allegation and a new sexual assault allegation from a California spa manager. Unfortunately, neither of those claims was surprising. What was surprising was that McMahon had told people that he "intends to make a comeback to WWE." The former CEO feels he received bad advice from people close to him and feels the allegations would have "blown over" if he hadn't stepped down.
While a Vince McMahon return is unlikely, the fact that he is still the majority shareholder in the company has WWE fans and, by many accounts, its employees very worried.
There Are Numerous Accusations Of Sexual Assault Against Vince McMahon
Even before the Wall Street Journal articles surfaced in the summer, Vince had multiple accusations of sexual misconduct credited to his name. In 1992, former WWE referee Rita Chatterton publicly accused McMahon of raping her in the back of a limousine in 1986. Unfortunately for Chatterton, the statute of limitations had passed by the time she went public with the story.
In 2006, Vince was involved in another scandal as he was accused of groping a spa employee and showing her inappropriate photographs. The charges were dropped, and the case never went to trial.
Had either of these stories taken place in a post-Me Too era, McMahon's power-hungry run likely would have ended much earlier than it did. In 2022, evidence of assault, thankfully, is taken very seriously. With six separate stories of sexual misconduct (four of which have been settled), the dark cloud still looms heavy over the head of McMahon.
Vince McMahon Used WWE Money To Pay Off Women
As damning as the sexual misconduct accusations were, they weren't the reason for Vince's exit. The straw that broke the camel's back was the revelation that McMahon had used company money to pay (and silence) these women.
This dirty, gangster-like maneuver may have worked in the 80s and 90s, but the "under-the-radar" manner in bookkeeping doesn't work when you're a publicly-owned company. McMahon had abused SEC violations, detrimental actions for a CEO to partake in.
Despite his desire to return, his abhorrent personal and business behavior would likely go over poorly with WWE's investors and board members.
Business Has Been Booming Since Vince McMahon Left WWE
There's no moral argument for Vince McMahon's return to WWE. However, since morality has never been a deciding factor for Vince or the company, here's a better reason that appeals to the ideals of WWE: business is booming without the 77-year-old McMahon.
When Vinnie-Mac stepped down from the company in July, many expected the stock price to plummet. The opposite was true. WWE's stock price rose tremendously. Additionally, WWE has seen an uptick in revenue and a massive increase in ticket sales, and with a few exceptions aside, the ratings have been up.
There's an argument to be made (and numbers to back it up) that a Vince McMahon return to the company would hurt WWE's bottom line. Once the rumor mill of a return started, WWE's stock price dropped. The day of the WSJ article saw the company's stock price close at $73.73, down $1.68 (-2.23%).
WWE Creative Has Been Better Since Vince McMahon's Departure
The sexual assault allegations are the most-pressing reason to deny Vince a comeback. For fans, they also care about the product.
Over the last decade-plus, WWE's creative has been stale, uninspired, and downright bad. The latter years of McMahon's creative reign saw very little creation of new stars, stagnant booking, and a general lack of respect for the audience's intelligence.
While WWE is far from out of the woodwork regarding its writing, there has been a very noticeable improvement. Triple H's booking process has seen patient storytelling and better promos. To put it simply, more wrestlers are over in Triple H's WWE than they were with Vince's.
You'd be hard-pressed to find any wrestling fan begging for Vince McMahon to return as the head of creative. His out-of-touch approach was long overdue for an exit. And while there are still stains and remnants from his nonsensical booking, they are slowly but surely being washed away.
A Vince McMahon return would be catastrophic for WWE. Business would dip, the creative would suffer, and most importantly, the optics would be disgusting. However, in the mind of a sociopath, none of that matters. As he has his entire life, Vince will fight to stay on top. The only question is, who will fight back?