TKO notifies SEC of Vince McMahon’s resignation

  • Ian Carey
  • By 

TKO Group Holdings has confirmed Vince McMahon’s resignation. 

The company submitted an SEC filing on Monday officially recognizing that McMahon is no longer with the company. 

TKO’s filing reads:

On January 26, 2024, Vincent K. McMahon notified the board of directors (the “Board”) of TKO Group Holdings, Inc. (“TKO”) of his resignation from his positions as Executive Chair and a member of the Board, and any other positions, employment or otherwise, he has at TKO and its subsidiaries, in each case, with immediate effect as of January 26, 2024.

McMahon’s resignation came one day after former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a lawsuit against him, WWE, and John Laurinaitis. The suit accuses McMahon of physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault, and sex trafficking. McMahon later released a statement denying the allegations. He issued a further statement on Friday announcing he was resigning. 

McMahon’s statement from January 26 reads:

I stand by my prior statement that Ms. Grant’s lawsuit is replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and is a vindictive distortion of the truth. I intend to vigorously defend myself against these baseless accusations, and look forward to clearing my name.

However, out of respect for the WWE Universe, the extraordinary TKO business and its board members and shareholders, partners and constituents, and all of the employees and Superstars who helped make WWE into the global leader it is today, I have decided to resign from my executive chairmanship and the TKO board of directors, effectively immediately.

Our own Dave Meltzer wrote about Vince McMahon and Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s handling of the situation at the Royal Rumble press conference in Sunday’s Daily Update. 

Meltzer wrote:

Vince isn’t coming back, but we do have to look at the top of TKO, and that’s not Levesque or even Nick Khan, but it is Ari Emanuel who made the decision to keep him in the company after so much had already come out and those on the Board who did a investigation and never interviewed Janel Grant, who was the person whose story ultimately started the ball rolling to uncover multiple payoffs. I don’t think Levesque was hung out to dry on purpose, nor is this a defense of him, but once they decided to do the press conference, he needed to be prepped on what to say and they failed him badly.