Voicemails from Vince McMahon & Ari Emanuel released: WWE/UFC merger ‘solves a lot of problems’
Three voicemails from Vince McMahon and Ari Emanuel in 2022 have been released in the wake of the WWE shareholders lawsuit that is expected to end in a settlement between both parties.
Obtained by Post Wrestling/Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston via a Freedom of Information Act request, the clips were filed as exhibits, available via YouTube below. The text of all them was previously available with Thurston pursuing the actual audio.
In one of the clips from September 2022, Emanuel assured McMahon that he would be helped with his impending legal issues with both the U.S. Department of Justice and the SEC who were investigating his actions. This was during the time Emanuel and Endeavor were negotiating with McMahon to merge WWE with UFC to create TKO — a deal that eventually was signed.
In one of the clips found below, Emanuel said he spoke with Latham & Watkins (a legal firm) and that “everybody at the DOJ is former Latham lawyers. So on that side, it will be helpful.” He downplayed the SEC, saying “that’s just the penalty” and that “As it relates to everything else, yes, we can indemnify you, and we will.”
“Indemnify” means they were promising to compensate McMahon for any losses, damage or liabilities as a result of that litigation. In most cases, that only covers civil cases and not criminal cases. Emanuel notes as much, saying “this is not criminal.”
Thurston stated in his reporting that, “Due to lost evidence that McMahon and others did not preserve, the judge in the shareholder case decided that he would presume it was true that Emanuel’s offer of indemnification influenced McMahon’s thinking ahead of the WWE sale process, although the trial has since been cancelled.”
That shareholder case asserted that McMahon conspired to merge WWE with UFC in order to remain in power, therefore not getting the best possible deal for shareholders.
Several days later, Emanuel left another voicemail for McMahon, saying that he wanted everyone to “get together and talk through all the issues because I think whether it be the DOJ or anything, there’s ways around this to figure this out.”
The final voicemail was from December 2022 from McMahon to Jeff Sine of The Raine Group who advised McMahon and WWE on the merger. It’s on this call where McMahon says he wants to move forward with Emanuel as “It solves a lot of problems. I, you know, again, together, I think it’s a stronger situation than either one of us on our own.”
This came roughly an hour after a meeting with Emanuel that also saw Linda McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan in attendance as was Paul Levesque and Mark Shapiro. Khan and Stephanie were co-WWE CEOs at the time.
Since 2011, Josh has been a contributing editor to Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline.com and also hosts the Punch-Out podcast. He has also written for Fight Magazine, Bloody Elbow, Bleacher Report, and other websites. He's a 2000 graduate of the University of Maine, worked in pro sports, and once was an indie ring announcer.