Updated WWE Lawsuit Claims Stephanie McMahon Convinced Board Members To Stay In 2022

So far in 2025, WWE has found itself embroiled in some legal drama. The most notable cases have been Janel Grant's lawsuit accusing former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis of sex trafficking and abuse, and the Ring Boy's lawsuit accusing McMahon and his wife, Linda McMahon, of covering up Mel Phillips' alleged sexual abuse of WWE ring boys. But it doesn't end there, as WWE is also the defendant in a shareholder class action lawsuit in Delaware, one first filed in 2023 that claims McMahon influenced WWE being sold to Endeavor for his own gain.

Reviewing an updated version of the lawsuit, Wrestlenomics has learned key details, including the identity of the plaintiffs, pension funds from Ohio and Michigan and Florida Atlantic University professor Dennis Palkon, who's group was ruled lead plaintiff in August 2024. Filings show the plaintiffs demanded, and received, copies of "WWE's Board of Directors' meeting minutes," thanks to a Delaware General Corporate Law section 220.

While many details remain redacted, minutes of these meetings made available show former Board members Man Jit Singh and Ignace Lahoud attempted to resign in June 2022. Their resignation attempts came only a day after the Wall Street Journal first reported on the Board was investigating a $3 million hush money payment by McMahon.

However, neither Singh nor Lahoud went through with their resignations, which the plaintiffs claim was due to the work of Stephanie McMahon. While she was on leave from WWE at the time, McMahon remained on the WWE Board, and is alleged to have persuaded Sing and Lahoud to stick around via "multiple voicemails" and "emails sent to other directors." Oddly enough, McMahon officially returned to WWE days later, assuming the positions of interim CEO and Chair following her father's resignation.

While Singh and Lahoud initially remained, two other Board members, Connor Schell and Erika Ayers Nardini, resigned in July and September, though a WWE filing claims neither of their departures were unrelated to McMahon's investigation or any disagreement with the company. Singh and Lahoud would depart the WWE Board in January 2023, immediately after McMahon forced himself back into the promotion. The plaintiff's cite Singh and Lahoud disagreeing with McMahon's return as the reason for their resignations.

The plaintiff's further claim that the Board minute data on January 9 shows McMahon used that meeting for him and the Board to "approve his appointment as Executive Chair and the scope of his activities in that capacity and to appoint members to standing Board committees." Though the board had unanimously opposed McMahon's return a month earlier, the filing suggests Board members Paul Levesque, aka Triple H, Nick Khan, and Steve Koonin "reversed course" and approved McMahon's return, along with other members.

Though McMahon secured the necessary votes, the filing states at least one Board member, Michelle McKenna, abstained, while another, Steve Pamon, wasn't at the meeting. As for Stephanie McMahon, it remains unclear whether she participated in the vote or not. She would resign from WWE just days later, though the plaintiffs claim McMahon showed no disapproval of her father in the announcement, instead citing WWE's "strong position" as reason for her leaving the company.