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What is Vince McMahon planning?
“If I were him, I’d want creative control, too”
undisputed.substack.com
Vince McMahon not finished in sports and entertainment
Do not expect Vince McMahon to go away quietly.
There are constant reminders that McMahon is returning to the world of sports and entertainment.
Or, perhaps, sports entertainment.
Just recently, he made a move to purchase controlling interest in Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship.
David Feldman, BKFC’s founder and president, confirmed that a meeting occurred–and that McMahon is resolute about a return to promoting.
“He’s a great guy, his whole team is great, but the timing wasn’t right for us,” said Feldman, who was not willing to relinquish full control of BKFC. “He’s Vince McMahon–if I were him, I’d want creative control, too. He was awesome, very complimentary, and he was very serious to do business.”
More than a year has passed since McMahon effectively left WWE. He has been silent on leaving the industry, and for good reason: his focus is an ongoing lawsuit.
But if McMahon, 79, is determined to rewrite his own finish, then time is of the essence.
Speaking with several executives in combat sports and pro wrestling, the belief is that McMahon will ultimately find himself involved again in professional wrestling, an industry he revolutionized over the last 40 years. There is no denying that major investors would be more likely to invest money in a McMahon-led project that is centered around wrestling.
But figuring out how that would look is particularly complicated.
McMahon was the executive chairman of the TKO Group–WWE’s parent company–but resigned a year ago after former employee Janel Grant accused him in a lawsuit of sexual assault and sex trafficking. The Justice Department began its own federal investigation into the allegations against McMahon, but its stay on Grant’s lawsuit expired in late 2024. The civil case, filed in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut, remains ongoing. While he still owns stock in TKO, his non-compete clause concluded earlier this year.
In October, Mike Johnson of PWInsider broke the story that McMahon’s post-WWE venture will be a new “entertainment hub company”. Surrounding McMahon in his newest venture, multiple contacts confirmed, is a team of executives who largely began leaving WWE in February of 2024.
Those with inside knowledge are not sold on the idea that McMahon’s investment firm, 14TH & I, is going to suddenly develop television shows or movies, a process that generally takes years to materialize. Perhaps this is a creative way of describing his parent company, similar to how WWE had a parent company in Titan Sports.
Plenty of questions still linger, beginning with Grant’s lawsuit. As for wrestling, there are also an abundance of questions, starting with a broadcast deal. Speaking with wrestlers off-the-record, there is a great deal of support for McMahon, as many note that McMahon is still held in high regard. But every major wrestler is under contract, so who would he build his wrestling shows around? Would it be weekly programming, or large-scale events? Once you start looking at the details, it feels like an insurmountable task, especially with WWE dominating the landscape. It would have been easier for McMahon to buy an existing property (like TNA), yet very few are available.
Prior to this past year, WWE and McMahon were interchangeable. It was fairly common to hear someone describing working for WWE as “working for Vince”. McMahon’s name will forever be linked to WWE.
If there is ever a wrestling announcement from McMahon’s new group, it will undoubtedly highlight that WWE is enjoying record-breaking success on Netflix, Peacock, and NBC–and stress how none of it would have been possible without McMahon.
But a return to the space–one where McMahon was once the end-all, be-all–feels like a losing battle. Perhaps that will only further motivate McMahon, who has connections with television executives, advertisement agencies, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority.
McMahon’s interaction with Feldman, and his desire to become heavily involved with BKFC, is telling. Nothing we know about McMahon suggests that he will gently disappear into the night. Clearly, he has plans to be back in a prominent position.
His track record in the wrestling space is proven. But attempting to recreate his age-old formula in the modern era will be the most difficult task of his career.
