WWE Co-Founder Vince McMahon made $400 million after selling over 5 million shares in WWE-parent TKO Group Holdings, according to a regulatory filing.
The Securities and Exchange Commission revealed documents showing McMahon sold a quarter of his shares in TKO – some 5.33 million – on Monday.
TKO owns the WWE and the UFC.
As the Daily Mail reports, McMahon still holds 15 million shares of TKO stock. A full sale – including the $412 million already received from Monday’s sale – would likely bring him over $1.5 billion.
TKO Executive Chairman of the Board Vince McMahon is seen during a ceremony announcing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has joined the Board of Directors for TKO at the New York Stock Exchange on January 23, 2024, in New York City. (Michelle Farsi/Zuffa LLC)
The stock selloff is the most significant result yet of McMahon’s removal from his position as TKO’s executive chairman. In January, McMahon resigned from the WWE amid explosive allegations from Janel Grant, a former employee, who alleged that he “defecated on her during a threesome, trafficked her to other WWE executives and sexually abused her with sex toys he named after wrestling stars.”
Grant further claims that McMahon paid her $1 million in hush money and had her sign a nondisclosure agreement to keep quiet about the incident.
UFC CEO Dana White, TKO Executive Chairman of the Board Vince McMahon, TKO + Endeavor CEO Ariel Emanuel, and TKO + Endeavor President and COO Mark Shapiro pose outside the New York Stock Exchange during the TKO Group Holdings’ listing day on September 12, 2023, in New York City. (Photo by Michelle Farsi/Zuffa LLC)
A spokesman for McMahon charged Grant with lying about their relationship and insisted that his client was only stepping down to spare stockholders the ordeal of a public legal battle. The spokesman claimed the suit was “replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and is a vindictive distortion of the truth.”
He further said that his client looked forward to defending himself in court.
Other troubling accusations against McMahon began to spring up after Grant’s suit. A former WWE wrestler named Ashley Massaro – who committed suicide in 2019 – told lawyers before she died in documents uncovered by VICE News that McMahon had propositioned her sexually and engaged in a coverup of her alleged rape on an Army base in Kuwait in 2006.
The federal investigation into Grant’s allegations against McMahon is ongoing.
