Following Vince McMahon’s departure from WWE, reports have continued to emerge offering an insight into his final years in charge.
When Vince McMahon announced his retirement from WWE, he brought to an end a career which saw him become the most powerful force in professional wrestling history. In fact, there many never be one person with that level of power and influence in wrestling again.
Following his exit McMahon was replaced at the top of the company by Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan as co-CEO’s. Stephanie McMahon will also serve as Chairwoman. Triple H has also been named Head of Creative, while he had already returned to his former position as Head of Talent Relations.
With the new regime in place there has been much reflection the Vince McMahon era. In the days after his departure it was reported that writers often had to filter McMahon as he was known to call people by the wrong name and use insensitive and offensive language. The report added that someone within WWE said they were pretty sure McMahon couldn’t remember doing things again and again.
A new report from Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has now appeared to frank these claims. Meltzer noted that McMahon had been having memory issues “for years” meaning that he couldn’t remember segments that had been done only a week earlier.
“There were also age issues with McMahon. You would get different viewpoints on him, but for years people had noted his memory issues, which led to forgetting segments that had been done a week or two earlier as well as forgetting long-term storyline issues, which would frequently be changed.”
Vince McMahon remains under investigation regarding allegations that he paid a former employee $3 million in “hush money” after the pair had an affair. More allegations have since been made public, including claims that McMahon paid four women more than $12 million across 16 years as part of similar agreements.
It has since been announced that WWE will be reissuing financial statements for 2019, 2020, and 2021, as well as Q1 of 2022. They aim to republish these statements by Tuesday, 9 August, though “there is no assurance that it will be able to meet this deadline”.
The move comes after the company uncovered payments worth $14.6 million made by McMahon that should have been recorded as business expenses.