wrestling / News
WWE Shareholder Lawsuit Plaintiffs Allege Vince McMahon, Triple H & More Destroyed Evidence
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The plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed against WWE over their TKO merger have accused Vince McMahon, Triple H, Nick Khan and more of destroying evidence. As reported, a lawsuit was filed in November of 2023 over the company’s merger into TKO, with plaintiffs alleging that WWE’s investigation into Vince McMahon was a “sham” and that McMahon manipulated the sale process to Endeavor for his benefit. Brendan Thurston reports for POST Wrestling that the shareholder plaintiffs are seeking sanctions against the defendants including McMahon, Khan, and Triple H over allegations that they destroyed evidence including Signal message and handwritten notes by McMahon.
The motion, which appeared on the docket this week, claims that the three as well as non-defendants Stephanie McMahon and Brad Blum did not preserve their communications despite the fact that WWE’s legal team gave them multiple notices to do so. Individuals subject to litigation are required to preserve potentially relevant communications once the legal action is “reasonably anticipated.”
The plaintiffs are asking for sanctions known as adverse inferences, which would allow the judge at the trial to assume that the missing evidence would be unfavorable to the defendants who are responsible for the loss.
The motion contains a new factual allegation, specifically that Vince and Stephanie McMahon, as well as Nick Khan, met with Endeavor’s Ari Emanual and Mark Shapiro on December 13th, 2022. This would have been a few weeks before McMahon forced his way back into WWE and pushed for a sale of the company.
Khan is described as having spearhead[ed]” communications between parties on Signal, an app that allows users to auto-delete messages. The motion also claims that Khan deleted normal text messages, which they say based on contextual clues included merger discussions and the investigation into McMahon over his alleged sexual misconduct.
The case is expected to go to trial in June.
