Life is a work.
You’ve heard the cliche a lot, go to college, pursue a career, buy a house, get a dog, and try to enjoy yourself. The reality is, the skilled trades have been woefully left behind until recently, the future of the job market will depend on how many jobs the billionaires can eliminate through the use of AI, despite all the warnings from Sarah Connors, and the cost of housing and student loan debt will keep you working until you’re 95 so don’t look to collect those promised retirement benefits anyway.
At least getting the dog was still a good decision. Rescue a stray from the shelter, an actual underdog, not a purchase from a pompous breeder.
It’s ironic, but the narrative that you’re sold, at least in America, is often more of a work than professional wrestling. Perhaps, that’s why the pursuit of the American dream is so closely associated with politics since that particularly field is also more of a work than pro wrestling. It’s more profitable, too.
One of the ways that the suits of political parties look to ensure your vote is to preach the importance of an investment, a nest egg for the future. It goes without saying that the horrendous amount of inflation over the course of different administrations will chip away at those savings. Maybe it is actually better to store the cash under the mattress? Maybe set up a lemonade stand to capitalize on the emerging market of the dehydrated public when global warming continues to melt the planet?
That said, there’s no doubt that there can be a return on investment when money is put into the right companies at the right time. When Apple went public 45 years ago, the initial public offering was $22 a share. As of this writing, the current price is $273 a share. If you would’ve spent that $22 on one share in 1980, you’d have made $55,552 over the years. Investments are like any other type of wagering, a higher risk can translate into a higher reward in the short term, or steady investment with a lower risk can yield a measurable return over the course of time. The dot com bubble that burst in the early-2000s, as well as scandals like Enron are examples of when you can get burned from investments. It’s the nature of the beast, the same thing can happen in real estate.
The common theme is that investing in something steady and with a proven track record is generally a safer option that can see a return on the investment over time.
That’s why the current WWE shareholder lawsuit, which just had newly-uncovered text messages from the discovery phase of the legal proceeding, is somewhat puzzling. Post Wrestling reported last week that there were a series of text messages from future TKO CEO, Mark Shapiro to Endeavor executives on the day of Vince McMahon’s original resignation from the WWE in 2022 that revealed that not only was there a plan for McMahon to return, but that he was going to sell the company to Endeavor, which became the merger with the UFC to form the TKO corporation.
The amount of legal jargon involved in all of this is more confusing than Vince Russo’s booking of WCW in 2000. However, the bottom line is this, basically the sale of the WWE to Endeavor, including Vince’s strategy to strong arm his way back on the WWE board since he was still the majority stakeholder of WWE stock to facilitate the sale to Endeavor, was as predetermined as any of the winners for the WWE pay-per-views. The major problem with this is essentially the same thing that landed Vince in hot water to begin with when it was reported that he used company money to pay for nondisclosure agreements to cover up his affairs and sexual misconduct accusations. In theory, if the sale to Endeavor was preordained, WWE management, specifically McMahon, had no intention of working in the best interest of the shareholders of WWE stock, but rather had agreed to sell to Endeavor in exchange for CEO, Ari Emmanuel’s promise to keep Vince in power as the head of the company. This definitely served Vince’s personal interests, especially after the WWE board voted against him remaining on the board after the original misconduct scandal. Of course, when the Janel Grant lawsuit was filed in early-2024, Vince was exiled from the company completely, but the alleged agreement of the sale saw Vince return after the merger as the Shapiro text messages said was the plan. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which was investigating McMahon before his pal, the orange villain, had the Justice Department drop the charges, is there to basically protect investors from misleading business practices. When Vince didn’t disclose that he used company funds to pay for his affairs, he not only misappropriated money, but also deceived investors. The reason being, it’s possible that those that purchased stock might’ve not made that investment if they knew the owner of the company was accused on sexual misconduct. Furthermore, if the plan was for a merger to take place or at the very least a sale to a bigger conglomerate like Endeavors, there could’ve been the possibility of insider trading since it would theoretically be in a potential shareholders best interest to buy WWE stock before the sell to see a possible boost in the price after the launch of TKO on Wall Street. This is one of the many reasons that so much review and regulation takes place before a merger is approved since it’s a way for the SEC to protect investors.
In this scenario, it’s possible that the shareholders that had WWE stock prior to the merger could’ve theoretically seen a bigger increase in the value of their stock if the organization was sold or merged with a different buyer. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reporter that Liberty Media, a media company worth billions of dollars, was going to make an offer for the promotion, but wasn’t given a chance to do so because the sale to Endeavor was done so quickly at the time. If the claim that the sale was planned ahead of time is true, it’s possible that’s why the deal was done without much notice. Obviously, the legal process will have to play out to see how far this actually goes, or if there will simply be a payoff to current stockholders, which will be peanuts in the grand scheme of things, but it would be interesting see if the TKO legal team can produce some type of evidence that other offers were at least taken as some type of defense or if Endeavor was the only buyer contacted.
On one hand, the argument can be made that the investors saw a return on their investment because their stock was converted to TKO stock when the merger was announced and the value increased based on the success of the media rights deals. On the other hand, how the merger played out in the relatively short term is irrelevant. The claims of the lawsuit are based on the notion that investors were mislead and that McMahon was not looking to serve the interest of shareholders if he had prearranged a sale to Endeavor. Keep in mind, the WWE merged with UFC just over two years ago, there’s not something as established as the previously mentioned Apple track record for the TKO legal team to make a solidified defense that the sale to Endeavor was actually the best move for the organization.
The lawsuit claim is based on if investors were mislead, not if a merger with the UFC increased the value of the corporation.
This is actually not the first time that WWE brass was sued and had to pay based on their deception of investors. The company paid $39 million in 2021 after a lawsuit was filed against them because of the media deals for Saudi Arabia not being finalized when the organization said it was a done deal. The result of this lawsuit, which has more moving parts and is a much bigger issue than a specific media deal, will probably be the same as the Saudi lawsuit. TKO will probably settle it for millions of dollars just to keep it out of court and chalk it up to the cost of doing business. That said, you have to wonder if any of these shady business practices will come back to bite the TKO suits? Truth be told, given Linda McMahon’s role in the cabinet, and Dana White’s friendship with the convicted felon, the TKO corporation is basically shielded from any true consequences as long as Trump is in office. Taking into account the amount of cash and media muscle that the corporation has behind it, it’s a very stable conglomerate, but I wouldn’t be shocked if their stock price and thus the overall value of the company takes a hit at some point if investors looks faith in the decision-making process.
Still, it’s rather fascinating that an organization of this size can get away with something as underhanded as deceiving its investors and potentially manipulation of the stock price based on only being willing to sell to a specific buyer.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
