The scandal that forced former WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon to resign harmed the company’s ability to sell sponsorships.
WWE Chairwoman & Co-CEO Stephanie McMahon and Co-CEO Nick Khan attended the Wells Fargo TMT Conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday with analyst Steven Cahall. According to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, McMahon discussed how they are seeing positive momentum with sponsorships again after a brief pause.
“We’re seeing positive momentum [with sponsors], and again, like I said on the calls, we did have a pause,” McMahon said. “In addition to the macro headwinds, ya know, of course, there was some change and things that happened in our company this year. And we’re definitely seeing, for next year, what we wanted to see.”
Thurston wrote, “There’s no doubt she was referring to reports that started to come out in June that Vince McMahon paid several women to sign non-disclosure agreements after he had sexual relationships with them, and, in at least one case, he allegedly coerced a sex act. The story was a financial scandal, too, because the company later determined the NDA payments, which were to protect WWE as well as Vince personally, should have been (and weren’t) accounted for as company expenses.”
For those who missed it, the most recent WWE update on the Special Committee investigation into McMahon and former WWE Talent Relations head John Laurinaitis can be found by clicking here.
