Loss Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/snanemcmahontodepartWWE STAMFORD, CT – Shane McMahon, Executive Vice President of Global Media, announced today he has tendered his resignation effective January 1, 2010. Shane stated, "It has been an incredible experience to help build WWE into a global phenomenon. However, having been associated with this organization for the majority of my life, I feel this is the opportune time in my career to pursue outside ventures." "Even though I am personally saddened by Shane’s decision to leave the company, I am proud of the enormous contributions he has made. He will unquestionably bring passion, commitment and extensive business experience to any endeavor he pursues," said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman and CEO. Fascinating. There has to be more to this. I know it was for different reasons, but it's interesting that two McMahons are no longer part of the company. Looks like it's just Vince and Stephanie now (not counting HHH and Marisa). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 Is Marisa still involved with the company? I think she might be the sane voice encouraging Shane to leave all the wrestling insanity behind him while the going is good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 Good for Shane. What outside ventures is he interested in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eduardo Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 This is really unexpected and I'm assuming it's going to turn into a really interesting story at some point. As far as outside ventures, didn't Shane want to get involved in MMA a few years ago? Maybe I'm remembering the details wrong, but I think Shane was one of the main WWE officials that really wanted to buy PRIDE from DSE at one point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herodes Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 The archetypal weak mafia son, heir apparent to the empire, wanting to prove himself to his father yet falling short of expectations. Unable to be worthy in his father's eyes he seeks to win the respect of the wrestlers, yet they never see him as anything but management and refuse to accept him into their fraternity despite his attention-seeking stunts. Cuckolded by his sister and brother-in-law backstage as they inherit the keys to the kingdom. Once Stephanie had shown her father that she was the son and heir that her brother never could be, and no longer afforded to the protection of his mother once she left to pursue political ambitions, the mommy's boy had no other choice but to leave and join Linda's campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Morris Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 I suspect Shane will be involved in some other venture. What will be interesting is to see how that future venture of his will be positioned against WWE, if at all. And I did post this at tOA, but will post it here as well: It's extremely unlikely that Shane will ever show up in TNA... but if it happened, I wouldn't be shocked (and I will add, because that's exactly the type of thing Vince Russo would love to have happen). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted October 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 I think the more likely scenario is that the McMahon family is divided these days, and Shane and Linda were close, and now that she's out of the company, he has no one else on his side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 I wonder if Shane would ever have the balls to go up against his dad and open up another promotion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Childs Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 I have always gotten the impression, from Meltzer and others, that Shane doesn't love wrestling down to his bones, that for him, it was just the massively successful family business that gave him a chance to play around with various corporate roles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herodes Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 Fredo Corleone: I'm your older brother, Mike, and I was stepped over! Michael Corleone: That's the way Pop wanted it. Fredo Corleone: It ain't the way I wanted it! I can handle things! I'm smart! Not like everybody says... like dumb... I'm smart and I want respect! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditch Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 I assume that if Linda loses the Senate bid, she'll go back to Titan Towers. If she wins, would Vince stay on as CEO and officially have Trips and Steph take over creative? Would they promote someone new to start studying under Vince and eventually be the long-term CEO? Heck, that probably need to do that anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cross Face Chicken Wing Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 Good for Shane. If he starts a rival promotion, it would make for some fascinating real-life entertainment, but would likely end bad for Shane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 I would be surprised if Shane starts a rival promotion. The cost would be great, and he would be cutting into his inheritance. I can't imagine that he's burned the bridges on the way out to the point that he's "out of the will". In which case, it wouldn't make sense for him to do much that would harm the company. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Talon Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 I would not be totally surprised to see Shane buy into UFC or Strikeforce, given his interest in MMA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 I'm not sure why the Fertittas would want to sell a piece of Zuffa to Shane. They do have issues with Station Casinos in BK, but those issues are far, far, far beyond what Shane can put on the table. They turned down $950M for much of Station earlier in the year, instead going the route of Chapter 11. Lord knows what Zuffa is valued at, and how they've strucured the company as far as debtload. But Shane's WWE shares and income are chump change compared to what the sale price of Zuffa is. $10M, even if Shane has that laying around (or more likely could take out a big loan for) doesn't buy much of the company. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 On Strikeforce, or hooking up with some money mark like Cuban to fund another promotion, would be a really dumb idea. Shane probably should think "small" rather than BIG. Thinking big lead to the XFL. Not blaming that one on Shane, but it's a pretty typical wrestling mentality detached from the real world. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeCampbell Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 It's extremely unlikely that Shane will ever show up in TNA... but if it happened, I wouldn't be shocked (and I will add, because that's exactly the type of thing Vince Russo would love to have happen). I don't think it will ever happen. But it'd be a great "fuck you" to Russo for Shane to call him and tell him he wants to come in and cut a promo. He comes out as a surprise and double crosses Russo and buries *him* live on PPV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 I'd love Shane to go against his father and sister. Of course it would never happen. Still, good for him, he always seemed the saner of the bunch, by far, and at times he was entertaining as a chickenshit heel. Would have been a very good bumping manager in the 80's. If Shane goes into the MMA business, wouldn't that be kinda go against the family business ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 I'm not sure why the Fertittas would want to sell a piece of Zuffa to Shane. They do have issues with Station Casinos in BK, but those issues are far, far, far beyond what Shane can put on the table. They turned down $950M for much of Station earlier in the year, instead going the route of Chapter 11. Lord knows what Zuffa is valued at, and how they've strucured the company as far as debtload. But Shane's WWE shares and income are chump change compared to what the sale price of Zuffa is. $10M, even if Shane has that laying around (or more likely could take out a big loan for) doesn't buy much of the company. So the Fertitta's sold 10% of Zuffa to Abu Dhabi Money Marks for an estimated $125M. As I was saying, if Shane happened to have $10M laying around (which would be a lot of money for him in liquid assets), it doesn't buy much of the company: 0.8%. I don't know if Shane has enough contacts to even have put together an "investment group" to raise $100M. If he did, I suspect the players would have thought they would get more than 10%, and be more than simply money marks but instead have some impact via that money. For example, if several of Shane's "international network" contacts fronted big chunks of that $$$, it's likely they would have wanted content rights for that investment. For UFC, that's just a limitor on their future ability to distribute cotent. Granted, they're not spinning the investment as being by a Money Mark and are touting their ability of the Abu Dhabi connection getting them into new markets, especially China. I don't doubt they might get some benefit there. But it strikes me that the biggest benefit is how little the Brothers are giving away for the investment. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 Yeah, I think this has more to do with the Fertittas needing the cash with their casino business being in trouble, than the potential Middle Eastern and Asian contacts the Abu Dhabi businessmen bring to the table, the benefits of which sound a bit tenuous. At the end of the day, the Fertittas and White still have majority share of the business, so they'll remain in control even if their relationship with their recent investors sours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted January 18, 2010 Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 Agreed that it's likely due to the Brothers needing cash. The stuff in the WON about the UFC's debt is rather interesting. The $25 million credit facility is chump change, and likely the revolve it to use for operations. The $425M "loan", if people recall, was $325M back in 2007 largely to skim off into the pockets of the Fertittas and White... and $100M last year "to help pay off part of the existing revolving credit line and fund a dividend to the owners of the company". So a large chunk of the $425M went out the door into the pockets of the Brothers (and to a less extent Dana), and is never going to return. In fact the Brothers aren't investing more into the company at the moment: they're looking to outside investors. They're basically will be using Money Marks over time to payoff chunks of money that they've already taken out of the company. Honestly don't know why they simply didn't get money marks back in 2007 rather than saddle the company with 7%+ in interest on $425M... which isn't a small chunk of change. Suspect that's some legal and tax and shaddy reason for it. Old Man Fertitta wasn't clean as a whistle, and it's likely his sons learned out to play the game at his knee. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted January 18, 2010 Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 Old Man Fertitta wasn't clean as a whistle, and it's likely his sons learned out to play the game at his knee. Case in point? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted January 18, 2010 Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 Christ... I go over to read that and quickly stumble upon: The Fight Opinion Five: The Pro-Wrestling Connection And by the end of the first paragraph my head starts hurting. But yeah... the Fertittas are scumbuckets and of course the MMA Media wants to dance around it. I'm not one to use Zach as Exhibit A on the subject, and his quick analogy to his old personal Great White Whale ("I WAS ALWAYS THE YAKUZA!!!!") make hitting the eject really hard to avoid. Snowden would be readable on the scumbucket nature of the Fertittas, but I don't know if he's ever taken time to walk through it. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tawren Posted January 19, 2010 Report Share Posted January 19, 2010 Snowden would be readable on the scumbucket nature of the Fertittas, but I don't know if he's ever taken time to walk through it. John There's a small chapter on it in his book Total MMA, but I got the feeling that a lot of that chapter had been shortened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted January 19, 2010 Report Share Posted January 19, 2010 Snowden would be readable on the scumbucket nature of the Fertittas, but I don't know if he's ever taken time to walk through it. John There's a small chapter on it in his book Total MMA, but I got the feeling that a lot of that chapter had been shortened. Yeah he pretty much danced around the current generation of the family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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