“So it’s so interesting with the Maximum Male Models because we were Vince’s last idea, before he left the company. So we debuted and we were supposed to do those fashion show segments for weeks.

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“From the little bit that I’ve been exposed to Vince McMahon, I can’t imagine a world where he doesn’t want to have the last say about his legacy and his reputation and at least make an attempt to resurrect it or reposition it. Let’s put it that way. Rewrite history probably will flow into it as well because he’s very good at that. We’ve seen that over the years. Vince is quite capable of rewriting history.”

“I mean, I don’t know the rest of the board, right? I don’t know Ari Emanuel. I don’t know any of them. So, it’s hard to really say. From my perspective, I don’t see that either. In fact, I see that even being more remote.

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The shareholder plaintiffs claim TKO Group’s earlier securities filing presented an “incomplete picture” by disclosing only WWE’s $105 million payment, leaving out McMahon’s separate $42.5 million contribution.

The lawsuit challenged the 2023 WWE-UFC merger, alleging the deal unfairly benefited McMahon and other insiders. A trial that was scheduled for June was canceled after the parties reached a settlement in principle, which still requires court approval.

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“That was a Vince McMahon idea. Here’s my interpretation because we didn’t spend more than a couple weeks on that idea, from what I remember, maybe a month, month and a half at the most, any serious conversation.

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Did you get all of that?

OK… Since Vince McMahon resigned from the TKO Board of Directors and then sold most of his TKO shares during early 2024, he’s been in a few legal wrangles. For one, he quietly used WWE money to pay for the NDA settlements instead of his own and because he didn’t disclose these legal matters, it was a Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) violation of not informing investors of such legal risks. With a new administration in place, they settled out of court and Vince paid a fine and reimbursed WWE for some of the NDA settlements. Next up, the Justice Department investigated Vince for sexual abuse crimes, but a change in administrations caused this to be dropped as well. Finally, the civil case between Vince and Janel Grant, as Janel alleges Vince stopped paying the NDA settlement and Vince alleged she breached the NDA contract by speaking to her friend. They are now settling privately with an arbitrator and with that, Janel dropped the civil case.

So, with Vince McMahon now free of legal issues, there are actual wrestling marks who are literally BEGGING executives at TKO to bring Vince McMahon back!

That’s right, the SAME Vince McMahon whom they were attacking during the 2010s as “obsolete”, “senile”, and “out of touch” while accusing him of “micro-managing” everything (which I covered THIS COLUMN for the MANY bad creative decisions he oversaw)… They want him to return now.

Really? So you’re telling me that you want an 80 year-old (soon to be 81) guy to rejoin an office setting or a backstage area full of women? Again, you already denounced his 2010s creative work, so why would you want that back?

Many idiots are like “well, he’d be better than Triple H”? Really? Because the last 5 years under Triple H’s tenure has made MORE MONEY than the last 5 years under Vince’s full tenure. Sure, Vince had to deal with 2020, but WWE was sinking badly during 2017-2019 with RAW viewership dropping, merchandise sales declining, and attendance dropping. Remember, they began SHRINKING houseshow events during 2019 because of poor attendance.

Triple H is doing a great job on creative, especially when he has free reign with the pen as he had during 2022 and mostly during 2023 (Vince meddled a tad during that year). The PROBLEM is the corporate overlords within Endeavor who keep putting their hands into the pike at TKO and within WWE. For one, they’re deciding to price gouge WWE fans on ticket prices, merchandising, and handing them over to ESPN and Netflix to be price gouged there. Secondly, they are encouraging ANY wrestler who is represented by Endeavor’s folks via the WME agency to be pushed. Hence why Becky Lynch, Logan Paul, Nikki Bella, John Cena, Roman Reigns, and Cody Rhodes are always pushed and why they tried to shoehorn Pat McAfee into the Cody vs. Orton match at Wrestlemania 42. Ari Emanuel, who serves as TKO’s CEO and Pat McAfee’s agent, called Pat the “next Sylvester Stallone” and he was dead serious about it.

Further, COO Mark Shapiro of TKO said that TKO had “complete creative control” over the WWE. Exact quote.

Triple H is just a manager of the creative team, but he’s really a vessel to pass along communications from TKO executives or their analytics team on what to do next.

Thus, if Vince actually returns, he’ll be that vessel for TKO’s communications and analytics, too. And Vince already played that game by constantly kowtowing to USA Network, FOX, Mattel, and other corporate sponsors while bending the knee also to the Saudi government for their money.

But to desire to bring Vince McMahon back would be to accept, 100%, of the monster that he really is. By supporting his immoral and potentially illegal behavior, you’re an enabler and possibly a terrible person yourself.

Let’s just look at the Vince McMahon issues that we’ve heard about since April 2022. Just those, alone…

– Janel Grant for $3 million as a NDA settlement for conduct from 2019 through 2022 before Linda McMahon discovered the relationship threatened to divorce Vince. The relationship began as consensual with Janel, but quickly morphed into threesomes, defecations, and trying to offer her to other WWE employees (like Brock Lesnar and Michael P.S. Hayes) with John Laurinaitis taking the bait.

– Former female wrestler who left the company during the mid-2000s for $7.5 million, settled during 2018. Reportedly gave Vince oral sex for a push, but instead of pushing her character on television, he wanted more sexual favors. She refused and then her contact wasn’t renewed in 2005.

– Former female wrestler was sent naked photos of Vince during 2008 and Vince made sexual advances to her. Vince settled with a $1 million NDA settlement

– Female manager (not sure if that’s a performer or a corporate employee with the title of “manager”) was paid $1 million via NDA settlement to remain quiet about a sexual relationship with Vince McMahon.

– John Laurinaitis lost his job as Talent Relations EVP during 2012 due to “sexual misconduct” and resulted in a $1.5 million NDA. Bear in mind that John Laurinaitis was also involved in the Janel Grant case and is a big source of the “trafficking” allegation by Janel with Vince passing her on to Johnny Ace.

– In 1992, Rita Chatterton accused Vince McMahon of sexual assault dating back to 1986. If you watch the Vince McMahon documentary on Netflix, Vince admits they had a “consensual relationship” to acknowledge that they were together. During December 2022 before Vince McMahon could return to the WWE during early 2003, Vince chose to settle out-of-court for this ongoing legal threat to the tune of “multi-millions” with an undisclosed sum (Rita was asking for over $11 million in damages)

^ THAT is what you want returning to an office or backstage area with female employees around.

Really? Could you look your wives, sisters, mothers, or any other females in your lives and say it with a straight face “I support Vince McMahon”?

If you haven’t, please try…

We’ve established that Vince McMahon did a TERRIBLE job during the 2010s overseeing and micro-managing WWE Creative. Now, we’ve established him as a danger to other employees and a financial risk as well.

But wait, there’s more… I’ve only covered the issues that have come up since April 2022. What about the other problems in the past with Vince McMahon?

– Accused of steroid distribution during the early 1990s, indicted and went to trial during 1994. Yes, Vince McMahon was exonerated, BUT he totally let Dr. Zahorian freely roam WWE locker rooms and toured often in Pennsylvania just to ensure the good doctor could attend those events. Vince won the case because a poor performance by the prosecution and bad witnesses used, but there is ZERO dispute that Dr. Zahorian (a) sold steroids to wrestlers and (b) sold steroids personally to Vince. Vince and many wrestlers are on record saying they purchased steroids or other prescription drugs from Zahorian.

– Only had drug testing briefly after the 1994 trial. Wrestlers back on the gas during the late 1990s and first half of 2000s until Eddie Guerrero passed away in 2005. Then a “Wellness Policy” was created but it didn’t punish nor did it publicly announce any wrestlers caught with any substances or performance enhancements. It wasn’t until Chris Benoit’s murders/suicide and then the online pharmacy scandal afterward that caused the Wellness Policy to have more teeth beyond 2007.

– Utter refusal to acknowledge concussions were an issue for his wrestlers. Again, the wake-up call was Chris Benoit and then Chris Nowiski convincing Vince that brain injuries were serious. Years upon years of forcing wrestlers to work through concussions took untold damage on wrestlers, including Benoit. Wrestlers took pills to compensate or steroids to heal faster from injuries.

– The “Ring Boys” scandal of the 1980s and early 1990s, where younger boys who were employed to help set up WWE rings were sexually harassed and/or “exploited” by several WWE employees accused and were later fired.

– Jimmy Snuka’s controversy from 1983 when his girlfriend Nancy Argentino died of traumatic brain injuries in their shared hotel room. Vince is on record of talking with authorities for a prior domestic abuse claim regarding Snuka and Argentino. With the way it was believed that Nancy died due to “falling”, it’s suspected that some intervention occurred with Vince or WWE regarding this case. It was re-opened during 2015 and Snuka was finally indicted with a grand jury reviewing evidence. Later dismissed due to Jimmy Snuka being in poor health to stand trial.

– Accused of sexually harassing and groping a female employee at a tanning salon during 2006. While no charges were filed after the police were called, it’s unknown if Vince made any payouts. But, this is within the pattern of behavior.

– Admitted in Playboy magazine to “cheating” repeatedly on Linda McMahon. While this isn’t illegal, it’s just evidence of an aggressive sexual appetite that Vince has and would later financially pay for.

OK, Vince-loving marks… Do you really what this 80 soon-to-be 81 year old back who has a pattern of BAD behavior plus is actually TERRIBLE at his job as proven by the utter creative trash we saw during the 2010s that caused many wrestlers to leave the WWE out of utter creative frustration?

Go rewatch the WWE of the 2010s and tell me that you want Vince McMahon back. Did you enjoy those Jack Swagger, Miz, Alberto Del Rio, and Jinder Mahal pushes? Overpushing an inexperienced Roman Reigns as a babyface? You must enjoy the taste of a crap sandwich and enjoy it, as Vince is quoted as saying many times.

Hell, go rewatch the WWE of the 2000s… Lots of utter crap there. WCW/ECW Invasion, anyone? Katie Vick? Botched New World Order in 2002. Shoving oversized goofs like A-Train and Nathan Jones down our throats?

As someone on X/Twitter once put out (apologies, as I forget your name or where I’ve quoted you previously)… Guys like the Rock took utter CRAP that Vince McMahon gave them and made it look great. Because of guys like Rock and John Cena polishing the TURDS that Vince McMahon’s creative gave them, it created a false sense of belief that the creative was good but the wrestlers performing it were bad. Many wrestlers suffered because of the BAD creative given to them that they personally couldn’t overcome compared to top tier talents like Rock or John Cena who could turn any lemon into lemonade.

Look at the difference between Roman Reigns of the 2010s, written primarily by Vince McMahon, versus Roman Reigns of the 2020s who was written by Paul Heyman with some creative freedom given to Roman. BIG DIFFERENCE when your career isn’t micro-managed by a senile old man named Vince McMahon.

Yet, fools still want Vince McMahon to return to the WWE and run creative again.

Even with all of the evidence, including your own quotes about how you hated the 2010s WWE, ya still want him back.

The FACT is that all of these Vince McMahon LOVERS are in their late 30s or above, and they still think that the late 1990s Attitude Era felt like yesterday. YET, they always seem to overlook the Vince McMahon-led WWE of 2001 through early 2022. And I understand this idea, because at my age in the 40s, it feels like the 1990s were just yesterday, too.

HOWEVER – I DO NOT want to return to the Vince McMahon creative style of the 2010s. NO THANK YOU. And to me, the Attitude Era is long gone and can’t be replicated, ESPECIALLY with a Vince McMahon who is 26 years older than the peak years of the Attitude Era and with a lot more bad documented behavior since.

The current issue with the WWE is that TKO executives micro-manage everything, as their tenacles are all over UFC and ruined that brand since the mid 2010s. Now, they want to play in the WWE and control things there too.

Further, the issue about Triple H is NOT about Creative… It’s about talent. Triple H’s biggest weakness is talent development, as his system just doesn’t scout wrestlers well, nor do they train MALE wrestlers that well either. If TKO wants to be a hero, they’d segregate that duty from Triple H and put someone else in charge. WWE is too veteran heavy right now with the younger crop that came up through HHH’s system not paying off. By the way, talents like Bron Breakker or Tiffany Stratton were John Laurinaitis signings.

WWE’s roster is tired and exhausted from doing 2-3 hours of RAW per week, 2-3 hours of Smackdown per week, more houseshows again, and monthly 3 hour Premium Live Events (PLE). Their wrestlers in their late 30s or in their 40s are getting exhausted or injured from demanding schedule.

THAT is nothing Vince McMahon could solve and his creative would run into the same exact thing, except he’d push just 1-2 veterans at the top instead of 5-10 wrestlers.

So go ahead, keep praising Vince McMahon and being nostalgia for any photos you took with him… But you have recent years of sample creative data, like the 2010s, to review how Vince managed the WWE company and then you have all of these legal issues + terrible treatment of women.

Open your eyes and see how bad TKO is micro-managing the WWE right now, just like Vince McMahon micro-managed the WWE during the 2010s.

But hey, we live in a society today where many people look the other way at bad behavior as long as it serves some weird desire (like “owning” another group of people).

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: Calling Out Wrestling Fans Who Want Vince McMahon to Return to the WWE and TKO appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Folks, this is the consistent pattern that has RUINED professional wrestling… Anytime it becomes more corporate, it starts to suck.

Everyone rejoiced during June 2022 when Vince McMahon stepped down and Triple H resurrected his executive career by returning to oversee talent and creative. Vince, especially since returning to the USA Network during the late 2000s, had become a total yes-man to corporations and they helped dictate his content with the PG era and trying to push squeaky clean babyfaces at the top. He even let a toy company help him terminate Mandy Rose.

Triple H had a great 2022-2023 run… Just as he was about to have another great year with 2024, the TKO Corporation, which was formed to serve as a holding company by Endeavor to oversee both UFC and WWE, placed The Rock on the TKO board of directors. Suddenly, creative was forcibly changed for Wrestlemania 40 (lucking out for the better on that event), but since Wrestlemania 40, WWE has been a bit wobbly. Creative has been micro-managed by TKO’s executives, especially since Endeavor actually represents several WWE wrestlers as talents, and TKO has shown their greedy side by jacking up the prices on everything.

Now, the WWE is offering major discounts on SummerSlam seats, as nosebleeds were $76 that reduces it down to $25. That’s a MASSIVE 67% discount and a major admission of defeat for (a) absurd price gouging of WWE fans and (b) creative micro-managing that has caused your top stars to DECLINE in value. 2 years ago, WWE has more equity in Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Gunther, and others on that WWE roster. Now, each are worn out and tired after working in front of worn out and tired WWE fans who have lost chunks of their disposable income supporting this overpriced promotion.

F around and find out, TKO… In just two freakin’ years, you have already ruined the AWESOME ATM machine that was WWE with the Bloodline receiving better creative with Triple H in charge during 2022-2023.

And as we’re finding out, Vince McMahon sold out to Endeavor to help protect him financially against any legal issues coming Vince’s way from HIS own bad behavior.

Getting back to TNA, I always wonder if Dixie Carter was influenced by the McMahon family who put themselves on television as the authority figure. Dixie did that, as well as taking more power backstage. As you saw from the TNA documentary, which can be easily proven as fact, Jeff Jarrett was sent home during July 2009 after Dixie Carter felt betrayed that Jeff would start dating Karen Angle without telling Dixie about it. However, it appears that Dixie may have been planning this for a while OR a bunch of people were inducing her to cause such a powerplay. Let’s see, here, who benefitted from Jeff being sent home along with eventually Dutch Mantell and Jim Cornette.

Well, obviously Vince Russo. The thing that this documentary confirmed more than anything was how political Vince Russo was behind closed doors or possibly privately on the telephone. He’s one of those employees who are constantly badmouthing other employees to management, and then seduces management with whatever “better way” scheme that he could sell them to use instead. Then, Vince acts all innocent to the people he cuts behind the scenes which is why several co-workers distrust Russo to this day. In WWE, he used their ratings situation to point towards other members of the creative team at causing the issue. No, WWE had a TALENT problem and that would quickly improve with Jim Ross taking over Talent Relations duties. For WCW, he seduced Time Warner executives that he was the magic solution to repair WCW’s ratings woes. However in WCW, he didn’t have amazing talents like Austin, Rock, Undertaker, Triple H, and Mick Foley along with a deep midcard with younger talents to book unlike what had in WWE. For TNA, he was repeatedly going behind Jeff Jarrett’s back to speak with Dixie Carter directly about company ideas and how his assistants, Dutch Mantell and Jim Cornette, were not good for TNA. Jeff, Jim, and Dutch were each dropped by TNA during 2009 while Russo remained.

Then later, Hulk Hogan seduced Dixie Carter. Yeah, Hogan was the “Babe Ruth of wrestling”, but by 2009, he was Babe Ruth but 10 years beyond his prime (minus the hot dogs, as Hogan always has the 24-inch pythons ready, dude!). However, in a creative role, Hogan could only get himself over and wasn’t good at getting other talent over if and when he managed their creative. TNA became a total disaster under himself and Eric Bischoff, as Eric is another person who seduces people into thinking he’s great. It’s AMAZING to me how effective Hulk Hogan was in getting both Dixie and Eric wrapped around his finger, as both forgot how to manage companies when Hogan was around. The lust of re-creating Hulkamania was just too much for them, I suppose?

The veterans reportedly swarmed Dixie, often after events during meals or at the hotel bar. Like most with money, she loves the flattery and will later cater towards anyone being overly nice to her or kissing her arse. She was just repeatedly manipulated by the wrong people and hence by 2010, TNA started losing money after profits were reportedly earned between 2007-2009. Creative went to hell without Jarrett, Dutch, and Cornette filtering out bad ideas and roster costs went up from Dixie’s signings and re-signings. From 2010 and beyond, TNA became WCW and were ironically led by Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, and Vince Russo, the same Three Stooges we witnessed at WCW Bash at the Beach 2000 that embarrassed the entire company (but thank you for the Booker T victory, Vince).

Now, Anthem owns them and they’ve been shuffling up the backstage staff and talent deck for years. Anytime the TKO-owned WWE wants something, they now ask “when?”. And I’m sure AMC would never let anything close to the TNA of the 2000s appear within the TNA of the 2020s.

Even All Elite Wrestling (AEW) has their own corporate interests. Remember, Warner Bros. Discovery owned up to 10% of AEW. You don’t think that has any trade-offs? AEW Collision and CM Punk returning during 2023 don’t happen without WBD demanding it. Right now, the Khans are probably sweating bullets as this Skydance Paramount acquisition of Warner Bros. is ongoing and might be for a while as its size and scope will see multiple legal fights in court. The Ellisons, who owned Skydance and purchased Paramount, have completely upended CBS’s news division and not for the better as they used to be a reasonably fair news organization. Now, they are under chaotic management and have been caught, repeatedly, withholding breaking stories out of fear of political retribution or upsetting the Ellisons.

Once the Ellisons complete their acquisition of Warner Bros., they could very well take the almost 10% stake in AEW and sell it back to AEW. They could also trash the television deal if completed before the year-end 2027 expiration date (though an option to extend 1 more year through 2028 exists). Both the almost 10% stake and the AEW television contract could be destroyed and then placed as “merger and acquisition costs” expense line items of an income statement. In other words, the stake in AEW and the television contract might end up as tax write-offs for the Ellisons and they’ll gladly do it.

Oh, and there’s this problem with HBO Max and Paramount+ co-existing… One has to go… While HBO Max has more subscribers, the content it hosts (especially producing original content) is far more expensive than Paramount Plus. Their streaming days on HBO Max could be over, especially as I predict that WWE is hopping to Paramount Plus after opting out early of their Netflix deal by 2029.

The corporate destruction blueprint for all of this was there with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and repeatedly throughout the years.

National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) – Mid Atlantic was owned by the Crockett family and thanks to attempting to expand too quickly (purchasing Bill Watts’s declining promotion, expanding to Dallas, buying private jets, and possibly overpaying their talents to fulfill extravagant lifestyles), the Crocketts sold their promotion to Ted Turner and were absorbed into his corporation. While it saved the company and rebranded it to “World Championship Wrestling (WCW)”, Ted put the biggest corporate stooges in charge of it. Jim Herd had ZERO wrestling experience, let alone any live sporting event experience, yet he was placed in charge of WCW. YEARS of poor operations followed and made WCW a financial failure.

Then, to his credit, Ted Turner gave Eric Bischoff a chance after he presented himself well in interviews and within 3 years, Bischoff had WCW making a profit for the first time. Bischoff reduced the operating costs but then made key signings of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Scott Hall, Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, and many unseen by United States audiences wrestlers from Mexico, Japan, and ECW. Bischoff stopped the goofy storylines seen throughout 1995 and early 1996 to the begin reality-based storylines through mid-1996. It worked… New World Order storyline began, Cruiserweight division was taken very seriously, and literally every WCW title belt mattered with wrestlers caring to fight for them. Total domination by WCW followed, as WCW Nitro defeated WWE Monday Night RAW for 83 straight weeks from mid-1996 through mid-1998.

However for WCW, some more corporate pain was coming. During the mid-1990s, Ted Turner and Time Warner were in talks to merge their corporations. The deal was finalized through October 1996, but it probably took a year of sorting things out and shuffling the organizational chart. By early 1998, WCW had new standards and practices policies for their company, meaning that they had to reduce the adult themes in tone such as violence, language, or anything alluding to sex or overly exploiting the many beautiful ladies on their roster. WCW suddenly became squeaky clean at a time when WWE had pure creative freedom to basically do anything during 1998.

With expensive merger costs, Time Warner executives began to look at WCW’s expenses more closely and they started to observe how intense labor costs were for the wrestling promotion. Then, as 1998 wore on, the revenues began to dry up and began to create problems for WCW during 1999. WCW operated on a loss during 1999 and was projected to have an even larger loss during 2000. On top of all of that, AOL was about to acquire this newly merged Time Warner/Turner company and would do so as the “dot com bubble” was about to burst (online firms expanded too quickly back then, causing false hope that it could keep expanding forever). By early 2001, it was apparent that this new AOL/Time Warner combined corporation needed resources especially as an economic recession happened that year and then prolonged consumer confidence pain after the tragic events of 9/11/2001. Thus, the new AOL/Time Warner executives decided to cancel WCW off their networks and then sold to the WWE for less than $4 million.

Ironically, WWE became a publicly-traded corporation through 1999 to expand their capital opportunities to fully defeat WCW as a promotion. To be honest, the WWE has declined in quality ever since. NOTHING will be as amazing as 1998-1999 for WWE, as they went from 6-8 million North American viewers to under 2 million in just 15 years. WWE is chalk full of corporate stooges from non-wrestling backgrounds holding Executive Vice President, Senior Vice President, and Vice President titles.

Even Extreme Championship Wrestling wasn’t immune to corporate pain. Taking WWE money meant special favors, such as taking on several of WWE’s wrestlers who struggled in WWE. Yes, Al Snow worked out well but he was a talented performer who just needed a better gimmick. But I can give you Brakus, whom the WWE hired based on his physique only. The company that signed them up for Pay Per Views kept delaying their revenues and were never held accountable for such delays. Then, ECW made a deal with Viacom during 1999. After getting hassled all year by Viacom for what should or shouldn’t air, Viacom ended up dumping ECW in favor of WWE RAW during 2000. All of those attempts by Paul Heyman to cater towards the WWE, the Pay Per View company, and Viacom meant nothing in the end. One of his deals with WWE during 2000 actually gave WWE deal matching rights on any potential buyers, hence why WWE owns ECW to this very day.

Of course, any company who doesn’t go corporate gets destroyed by the companies who do. Yeah, all of that money from the stock market, media conglomerates, and sponsors sort of matters financially these days.

TKO has ruined the WWE and have since early 2024 when they began micro-managing Triple H’s creative team and started raising prices on everything. Then when everything is so expensive, WWE has to rush bigger matches on each of the Premium Live Events just to sell those higher priced tickets. Here we are in 2026 and WWE lacks refreshing match-ups or wrestlers today are worn out from wrestling big matches and big schedules prior to this point. We’ve seen Roman, Seth, Cody, and CM Punk literally do everything possible in the WWE for the past 4 years. Meanwhile, TKO’s micro-managing has also made WWE thirsty for veterans. Oba Femi losing to Brock Lesnar after their Wrestlemania 42 match, Jacob Fatu being dispatched by Roman Reigns, and Bron Breakker getting swallowed in Seth Rollins’s wake has boosted the need to depend on veterans. Gunther has some bad losses that he’s still recovering from.

For WWE, there’s no going back. The Endeavor folks are corporate folks to the extreme, and love to buddy-buddy up with other corporates to make as much money as humanly possible… BUT NOT FOR THE PERFORMERS, but for themselves as executives and shareholders. To them, TKO is an ATM network with WWE and UFC as their ATM devices. They’re all getting rich while their hard-working fans who just want to be entertained are performing redistribution of their own income to this pathetic TKO corporation.

I don’t see a strong future for WWE. Once this crop of veteran talent get exhausted and begin to retire, WWE is totally screwed. The generation of talent behind them just aren’t as exceptional, yet, with star power to draw strongly at the top of any WWE card. I’m just not seeing any breakout stars in the women’s division, either, that could possibly one day make that division bigger. Many female wrestlers work and act exactly the same compared to the crop of female talent that came out of the 2010s.

If you want to see what corporate wrestling does to someone, look no further than Bayley. Go watch her stuff from 2015. Completely incredible stuff, as Bayley was literally “female John Cena” as a babyface. Her merchandise exceeded all of the female talents back then, and that included the Bella Twins who had a ton of merchandise offerings. She continued her great NXT work through the first half of 2016 but then debuted on the WWE roster during July (PLE) and August (RAW) that year. While it is true that getting over in NXT and WWE are different things, Bayley was a tremendous wrestler who was full of charisma and personality to get over anywhere. The Vince McMahon micro-managing creative team just did her no favors, making her look like a wimpy babyface despite the positivity that her character used to bring. By 2019, they turned her into a heel and that shell version of a character is what you see to this day. WWE ripped the enthusiasm out of her and now, she may very well leave and join her buddy Mercedes for AEW.

Corporations are too image conscious, too public relations savvy, and just lack balls to try anything risky. On top of that, they want everything to be all-inclusive because their end game is that if they can micro-manage the entire audience, they can then start setting higher prices.

I remember writing a controversial column during 2015 about how we might not see pro wrestling around in its current money-making form in 10 years based on the lack of strong competition back then PLUS the inability to develop the next big star. To WWE’s credit, they found their next big stars with Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman, and the Bloodline… BUT THEY MESSED THAT UP before and then after Wrestlemania 40. Thus, I’ll give WWE a few extra years between 2021 through early 2024…

TKO is gonna kill the longevity of the WWE. While UFC will always have people willing to physically fight someone, WWE is more about performance and their feeder systems aren’t going to effectively replace many aging veteran stars. Now, if WWE and UFC would share the revenues with their performers, then maybe we’d see booming motivations by the performers of both and things could greatly improve. However, executives at Endeavor only care about padding their bank accounts as much as possible until the ride officially ends. Trust me, they are scoffing at the idea of lowering ticket prices for WWE SummerSlam 2026 in Minneapolis because it reduces they money they could potentially earn themselves with higher ticket prices.

The TKO corporation has around $5 billion in debt, while Endeavor had over $6 billion in debt before Silver Lake acquired them. Despite both WWE and UFC bringing in bags of cash, Endeavor/TKO sure seems to have a lot of debt to pay off… Hmmm, that won’t be good if revenues have peaked for WWE.

How is that prediction to start off your weekend? Corporations weaken wrestling promotions!

Go ahead, WWE marks, and pray that Vince McMahon somehow returns. Bury your head in the same for how he turned WWE into an IPO, catered to Comcast repeatedly (hello PG Era) and corporate sponsors, began hosting events in Saudi Arabia, and or sold out to Endeavor. Remember, Vince McMahon was Vice Chairman for all of 2023 as many of these corporate plans to go deeper into Saudi Arabia, sell out to ESPN for PLEs, the Netflix deal, and price gouging were put into place. Keep wanting Vince “NDA” McMahon to return, ya clowns! Years after complaining about how terrible his creative was for most of the 2000s and 2010s, you somehow want him back in 2026. You make me sick, and it’s easy to see how corporations exploit YOU as wrestling fans.

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: Corporations Weaken Wrestling Promotions (WWE, WCW, ECW, TNA, and AEW) appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

“He ain’t out of the game. Vince isn’t out of the game. That’s just not his makeup. But what he’s going to do… one would assume it’ll have something to do with wrestling because that’s where he made his name. So, I don’t know, man. The world’s open to him. It just doesn’t seem like a lot of things interest him. He likes wrestling, and I think that’s where I’d see him headed.”

JR added that Vince working for AEW is an “unlikely” scenario…

“He’s going to want to steer his own ship, build his own boat, and take it from there. So, off the top of my head, I’d say probably not. I don’t see Tony Khan wanting to do business with him either.”

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“It wouldn’t shock me. I don’t know that I would expect it. I cannot imagine he would be put in charge of anything. It’s not like they’re going to have him replace [WWE President] Nick Khan calling the shots. He certainly isn’t going to replace Paul Levesque [Triple H] doing the booking. There’s no way they can go to that card. That’s not going to happen. But the idea of bringing him in in a figurehead position, trotting him out every now and then… like I said, it wouldn’t shock me at all.

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In an update, the case is officially headed to private arbitration which removes the dispute from the public court system. The move follows a Connecticut judge’s approval last month.

In a joint status report, Grant’s attorney, Ann Callis, confirmed that the parties have agreed to arbitrate the dispute…

“Pursuant to the Court’s July 13, 2026 order, ECF No. 151, Plaintiff Janel Grant, Defendant World Wrestling Entertainment, LLC, and Defendant Vincent K. McMahon (together, the ‘Parties’) jointly report that the Parties have executed an agreement to arbitrate their dispute. Pursuant to that agreement, within five business days, Plaintiff shall execute and cause to be filed a Stipulation of Voluntary Dismissal with Prejudice causing the action to be dismissed in its entirety, as to both remaining defendants, but without prejudice to the Parties’ rights to pursue their claims and defenses in arbitration.”

The parties in Janel Grant’s lawsuit against WWE and Vince McMahon provide update to the court saying they’ve signed an agreement to go to private arbitration. Within five days they will file to dismiss the case so it cannot be refiled. The judge will need to approve. pic.twitter.com/yhQVwIaCuS

— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) July 21, 2026

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