Shawn Michaels had the chance to work for Vince McMahon as both an in-ring wrestler and someone working in creative in WWE.
That all changed when McMahon resigned from his duties as Chairman and CEO of WWE amid the WWE Board investigating him for alleged sexual misconduct and hush money.
WWE later confirmed that from 2006 through 2022 (including amounts paid and payable in the future totaling $14.6 million), funds were not appropriately recorded as expenses in the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.
Also, WWE identified two additional payments totaling $5.0 million, unrelated to the alleged misconduct by McMahon that led to the investigation from 2007 and 2009, that were not appropriately recorded as expenses in the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.
Shawn Michaels on Vince McMahon’s Departure
While speaking on The MMA Hour about NXT, where he oversees creative for the brand, Michaels was asked if he ever envisioned a day that McMahon would not be running WWE:
“No. You can talk about it, but I never envisioned the time when Vince wasn’t there running stuff. All of us who have known him and worked with him for as long as we have, everyone knows, and I mean this lovingly, but he wanted to pass at his desk. That’s who he is. That’s how he’s built. I had every reason to believe that’s exactly what he was going to do. He always made jokes that, ‘If I die at Gorilla position, the show has to go on. Don’t move me. We got to get to seg 10 and 11 and finish the show.” You can talk about it, again, there’s lots of big talk in our line of work, but very rarely you see it get delivered on, but he’s always done what he’s felt was best for business.”
Following Vince’s departure, Triple H took over creative for the main roster while Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan were named co-CEOs.
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription