October 23, 2023 Observer Newsletter: WWE creative changes, Sting to retire in 2024

The news that Ari Emanuel basically removed Vince McMahon from creative and put Paul Levesque in complete control is big in and of itself, but even bigger based on what it represents.

In April, when the announcement was made that Endeavor had put together a merger of WWE and UFC, and the new corporate structure was listed, Emanuel was on top as CEO while McMahon was underneath him as the Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.

When CNBC interviewed McMahon and Emanuel after the merger was announced, Emanuel said that McMahon would remain in charge of WWE. When asked specifically if there was a disagreement between the two of them, what would happen, and Emanuel said that if there was a disagreement, they would do what McMahon wanted as it pertained to wrestling.

But it was only a few weeks into the new company being finalized last month that Emanuel made the move of removing McMahon from the creative side. Between that and his quote last week regarding the reasons for the decline of TKO stock and Emanuel mentioning McMahon’s name, this becomes a very interesting situation.

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