Back in 2023, WWE changed forever. After lots of speculation at the time, the company announced it was merging with UFC under Endeavor, creating what would eventually become TKO Group Holdings. It was one of the biggest business deals in wrestling history.
However, almost as soon as the merger was announced, the lawsuits started, and the biggest one was focused on Vince McMahon.
After retiring in 2022 amid the hush-money scandal, McMahon forced his way back onto WWE’s Board in early 2023, saying he needed to oversee the company’s media rights negotiations and any potential sale. WWE even created a Special Committee to handle the sale process because of McMahon’s involvement.
When Endeavor ended up buying WWE, some shareholders weren’t convinced everything had been handled fairly.
They sued, claiming McMahon influenced the sale process so Endeavor would be the company that bought WWE because it would allow him to stay involved after the deal closed.
Their argument was simple: WWE may have gotten a better offer from another buyer if McMahon’s own future hadn’t become part of the negotiations.
The lawsuit dragged on for the next three years and only got uglier.
At one point, the court sanctioned McMahon and several other defendants after finding that messages related to the sale had been sent through Signal, an app that can automatically delete conversations. That became a major issue as the case moved closer to trial.
Instead of taking their chances in court, the two sides eventually decided to settle. Earlier this month, Bloomberg Law revealed the price tag: $147.5 million.
WWE agreed to pay $105 million, while McMahon and/or his insurers are covering the remaining $42.5 million. TKO also expects insurance to pick up about $75 million of WWE’s share.
It looked like that would finally wrap everything up, but that wasn’t really the case after all. Even after agreeing to settle, there was still one last thing holding up the paperwork.
McMahon’s lawyers and the attorneys representing Nick Khan, Triple H, George Barrios and Michelle Wilson still had to sort out who was giving up what legal claims against one another and how the settlement would ultimately be handled behind the scenes.
With that said, the final issue looks to have been sorted out.
According to Brandon Thurston, citing new filings from the Delaware Court of Chancery, the WWE-affiliated defendants and TKO believe they’ve worked through those remaining issues.
At this point, they’re simply waiting for final approval from a handful of insurance companies before everything can officially be signed off. Attorney Ryan D. Stottmann, who represents Nick Khan, Paul Levesque, George Barrios and Michelle Wilson, wrote:
“Defendants Khan, Levesque, Wilson, and Barrios… believe they have addressed the outstanding issues regarding the intra-defendant releases at issue, and are awaiting final signoff from certain non-party insurance carriers… and anticipate being able to provide signature authority for the stipulation of settlement immediately upon receiving that approval.”
The shareholders suing WWE don’t think the insurance approvals should be delaying anything, arguing they were never supposed to be a condition of the settlement in the first place.
WWE’s share of the settlement is $105 million, with TKO expecting $75 million of that amount to be covered by insurance. The remaining $42.5 million will be paid by Vince McMahon and/or insurers on his behalf, bringing the total settlement to $147.5 million.
After three years of investigations, lawsuits, court sanctions and settlement negotiations, the legal battle over WWE’s sale to Endeavor might finally come to an end.
Vice Chancellor Laster entered an order approving the request to report back today. pic.twitter.com/zMoCyVsJ95
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) August 25, 2026
Want to get the latest wrestling news direct to your phone? Join our WhatsApp community by clicking here.
