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Shareholders pressing their case over WWE’s 2023 merger with the UFC are seeking access to records tied to federal investigations into Vince McMahon’s conduct, according to a new filing in Delaware Chancery Court.
The motion was submitted on Friday under seal, but the proposed order is public. It asks the judge, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster, to order WWE, TKO, President Nick Khan, Chief Content Officer Paul Levesque, and former board members George Barrios and Michelle Wilson, to turn over materials that were previously provided to the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The proposed order shows plaintiffs want the production to include every document provided to federal investigators between January 2022 and January 2024, “in connection with their respective investigations of McMahon’s alleged sexual misconduct and associated payments,” as well as all related communications with the federal agencies.
The request encompasses the period when federal authorities investigated allegations of sexual misconduct and related nondisclosure payments involving McMahon and women formerly employed by WWE. McMahon is also a defendant in the shareholder case, along with Khan, Levesque, Barrios, and Wilson.
McMahon has not been charged with any crimes related to the sexual misconduct allegations that became public in 2022. According to statements from his representatives last February, prosecutors dropped their investigation by that time. Additionally, McMahon has denied the sexual misconduct allegations made against him by as many as seven different women.
The shareholder plaintiffs’ new motion isn’t public, but the filing suggests a dispute with the defendants that they couldn’t resolve on their own. The defendants will have a chance to respond before Laster decides whether to order them to produce any of the requested documents.
An inquiry sent to communications representatives for WWE and TKO wasn’t immediately responded to.
The plaintiffs also raised concerns earlier this week about the defendants’ use of the Signal messaging app that may have resulted in the executives not preserving communications properly while the M&A process was underway. The defendants say those concerns are overstated.
McMahon is scheduled to be deposed on Monday as part of the ongoing discovery phase of the case.
In January 2025, the SEC fined McMahon $400,000 and required him to repay $1.3 million to WWE. It was part of a settlement with the agency in which McMahon did not admit to wrongdoing and did not deny the SEC’s findings.
McMahon signed multi-million dollar NDAs, including a $3 million agreement with former employee Janel Grant and another worth $7.5 million with an unidentified former WWE talent. The NDAs weren’t disclosed to the company or the public until 2022, which required WWE to issue corrections to its financial statements.
Unlike the shareholder suit and Janel Grant’s federal case against McMahon and WWE, the federal investigations have produced little public information.
Earlier this year, McMahon tried to limit the plaintiffs’ ability to request materials related to the sexual misconduct allegations, arguing the discovery demands were an attempt to harass and pressure him.
The shareholder litigation, now in its second year, argues that McMahon pushed the process toward Endeavor’s UFC because he believed Ari Emanuel was the only bidder who would keep him in place amid the misconduct scandal. McMahon has denied that’s the case.