Vince McMahon Scandal Hurt WWE’s Ability to Sell Sponsorships

The scandal that led to the retirement of former WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon hurt the company’s ability to sell sponsorships.

WWE Chairwoman & Co-CEO Stephanie McMahon and Co-CEO Nick Khan appeared at the Wells Fargo TMT Conference with analyst Steven Cahall on Wednesday in Las Vegas. Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics reports that McMahon talked about how they are once again seeing positive momentum with sponsorships after a previous 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.”