Hours after the news broke that Vince McMahon was stepping down as Chairman and CEO of WWE as the company’s board investigates allegations of misconduct against him, the company announced he would be appearing on the June 17 episode of SmackDown.
The one-sentence press release states: “WWE (NYSE: WWE) today announced that Mr. McMahon will appear on SmackDown tonight at 8 pm ET live on FOX.”
It is unknown whether McMahon will appear live in the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, or whether it will be a taped segment.
On early Friday morning, WWE announced that Vince McMahon would voluntarily step aside from his duties as Chairman and CEO while the board investigated misconduct allegations. The allegation is that McMahon agreed to pay a secret $3 million settlement to an employee with whom he had an affair. The investigation was started by the WWE Board in April and has since unearthed other nondisclosure agreements involving claims of misconduct by McMahon.
McMahon’s longtime lawyer, Jerry McDevitt, stated that the employee had not made any claims of harassment and that he paid the settlement using personal funds.
In the interim, Stephanie McMahon, who recently took a leave of absence from most of her WWE duties, will step into her father’s role as Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer of WWE. Her father will retain his duties on WWE Creative.
Vince McMahon has stated, “I have pledged my complete cooperation to the investigation by the Special Committee, and I will do everything possible to support the investigation. I have also pledged to accept the findings and outcome of the investigation, whatever they are.”
We will have live coverage of Friday Night SmackDown at 8 pm Eastern/7 Central.