Potential Class Action Lawsuit Filed Following Vince McMahon's WWE Return

BY DAVID BIXENSPAN / JAN. 11, 2023

On Tuesday night, the latest shoe dropped in the drama stemming from Vince McMahon's return to WWE, as a shareholder named Seth Fellows filed a lawsuit against McMahon personally in Delaware Chancery Court alleging breach of fiduciary duty. (For the uninitiated, that's acting against the interest of stockholders.) News of the lawsuit, which seeks "class action" status, was first reported Wednesday morning by Bloomberg Law's Mike Leonard.

"McMahon lacks the power he purported to wield," writes Fellows' attorney in the complaint, referring to McMahon using his voting control to rewrite company bylaws to require shareholder approval of a sale and/or "certain media rights deals" when reinstating himself to the board of directors last week. "Section 141(a) of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the 'DGCL') recognizes the inviolability of the board of directors' power to make significant decisions respecting the business and affairs of the Company. The Board members have an unremitting obligation to discharge their fiduciary duties."

Much of the complaint serves as a recap of the McMahon hush money scandal as it's unfolded since last spring, with the most relevant portions pertaining to the last few weeks. In stating that he would use his voting control to veto any media rights deal unless he was reinstated, the complaint argues, McMahon expressed a willingness to act against the best interests of the shareholders. It's further argued that McMahon's changes to the bylaws are unlawful under not just Delaware corporate law, but also WWE's corporate charter, which grants control to the board of directors.

The formal counts McMahon is being sued over are violations of both the Delaware law and the WWE charter's requirements for a corporation to be managed by a board of directors and breach of fiduciary duty. Fellows is seeking that the court declares the case a class action, declare that McMahon "breached his fiduciary duties, declare the company bylaw changes unlawful, invalidating those bylaw changes, awarding the plaintiff(s) their costs, and "[a]warding such other relief as this Court deems just and equitable."

Full Story

A Look At AEW Dynamite Ratings In 2022

BY RAJ GIRI / JAN. 11, 2023

AEW Dynamite averaged 960,000 viewers in 2022 in its regular timeslot. That is up 2% from the 942,000 viewers the show averaged in its regular timeslot in 2021. It should be noted that Dynamite faced head-to-head competition with WWE NXT for 14 weeks in 2021, which we will look at below.

Dynamite averaged a 0.35 P18-49 rating in 2022 in its regular timeslot, which was down 3% from the 0.36 P18-49 rating that it averaged in 2021.

You can see the audience and rating changes year-over-year since 2020, the first full year that the show was on the air, in the chart below:

The NXT factor

NXT aired head-to-head with Dynamite in 2021 for fourteen weeks and there was a significant uptick in Dynamite’s ratings once NXT moved to Tuesday nights. The six episodes of Dynamite before the NXT move averaged 775,000 viewers with a 0.30 P18-49 rating. The six after averaged 1.01 million viewers (+30%) with a 0.36 P18-49 rating (+20%).

Dynamite was head-to-head with NXT for the full first quarter of 2021, and you can see the effect that battle had on the ratings. Every quarter after the first was down from the year prior.

If you were to exclude the episodes with NXT competition in 2021, AEW averaged 1.013 million viewers (beating the 2022 average audience by 6%) that year with a 0.38 P18-49 rating (topping the 2022 average P18-49 rating by 9%).

We will look at SmackDown 2022 ratings tomorrow, followed by AEW Rampage on Friday.

More News

William Regal’s new title in WWE is Vice President, Global Talent Development (a role that had previously been filled by current Chief Content Officer, Paul "Triple H" Levesque), per PWInsider.

Glenn “Kane” Jacobs and Sean Waltman are scheduled to be in attendance for RAW 30 in Philadelphia a week from this Monday.

The wrestling rumor mill went into a frenzy on Tuesday night upon rumors spreading like wildfire that WWE had been sold to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Such rumors have since proven to be untrue, although Fightful Select reports that Vince McMahon has had "conversations along the way" with the Saudis.

Speaking of McMahon, AEW President Tony Khan noted during an interview with “In The Zone” that he was been following the developments of McMahon’s WWE return “very closely.”

WWE broadcaster Sudu Shah announced ]that January 10 was his last day with the company.

It was revealed this week that Johnny Gargano suffered a grade-2 AC sprain. Appearing on WWE's online show "The Bump," Gargano discussed how long doctors have advised him to remain on the sidelines, stating, “Doctors say, originally, about five to six weeks. I'm going to do everything in my power to cut that time down, and that's the most transparent I can be there."

Lawsuit Filed Against Vince McMahon, AEW…