Vince McMahon, Ari Emanuel Set June 8 Wwe Merger Trial
The wwe merger trial is set to begin June 8 in the Delaware Court of Chancery, and Vince McMahon, Ari Emanuel, Nick Khan and Paul Levesque are among the witnesses lined up for the shareholder lawsuit over the TKO merger. The case could leave shareholders with millions, or potentially hundreds of millions, if they prevail.
McMahon and Emanuel in court
McMahon, the former TKO chairman and defendant, is expected to take the stand. Emanuel, now TKO’s CEO and chairman, is also on the list, along with WWE president Nick Khan, TKO president Mark Shapiro and WWE chief content officer Paul Levesque.
The parties publicly filed a pre-trial witness list on Tuesday. Both sides plan to call McMahon and Emanuel as live witnesses, putting two of the most central figures in the merger fight in front of the Delaware judge.
Shareholder allegations over WWE sale
The lawsuit alleges McMahon orchestrated the TKO deal in 2023 to protect his own position after sexual misconduct allegations became public in 2022. The plaintiffs say he only trusted that Emanuel and Endeavor would let him stay on after a deal, and they argue other bidders were denied a fair chance to buy WWE.
Those claims sit at the center of the case. The defendants in the lawsuit are McMahon and then-WWE board members Khan, Levesque, George Barrios and Michelle Wilson; WWE and TKO are not defendants. They deny the allegations and are accused of breaching fiduciary duties as members of WWE’s board.
Witness list for Delaware
The witness list also includes Jeff Sine, the Raine banker who advised WWE, and Liberty Media CEO Marty Patterson, who was a senior-level Liberty executive when WWE was being shopped in early 2023. Liberty was among the bidders. The filings also show Greg Maffei calling the deal “pre-wired” in an internal email just after the news broke.
Other live witnesses listed include Barrios, Wilson, former WWE executive and board member Frank Riddick, current TKO chief financial officer Andrew Schleimer, former WWE board member and current TKO board member Steve Koonin, and TKO chief strategy officer Mark Zhu, who is expected to appear by remote video while on parental leave caring for a newborn child. The plaintiffs also may call Stephanie McMahon, Jeffrey Speed and Steve Pamon, while the defendants plan to call class representatives Dennis Palkon and Matthew Archer.
Jeffrey Speed led the board’s internal investigation into allegations against McMahon. The plaintiffs say that inquiry was a sham and was essentially closed in the fall of 2022, before McMahon formally engaged with the board in December 2022 and returned in January 2023. That sequence will likely be central once testimony starts in Delaware.
