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Big Update On Stephanie McMahon’s WWE Departure

By TJR Staff • Published 11th June 2022
Stephanie McMahon on the mic

A new report has shed more light on the reasons behind Stephanie McMahon’s absence from her WWE duties, citing her responsibility for a recent lawsuit against the company.

On May 19th, Stephanie McMahon made the surprising announcement that she’ll be taking a leave of absence from most of her responsibilities at WWE. The reason she gave for the hiatus at the time was that she wanted to take time to focus on her family.

“As of tomorrow, I am taking a leave of absence from the majority of my responsibilities at WWE. WWE is a lifelong legacy for me and I look forward to returning to the company that I love after taking this time to focus on my family.”

However, soon after McMahon’s announcement, Business Insider reported that a WWE source had informed them she was being moved on because of lower-than-expected growth.

“Family or not family, we’ve got to get the right people in place. We weren’t seeing that growth. When someone is moved out of a company, it’s usually the result of something not working. We took stronger control of that a few months ago.”

Now, Dave Meltzer has reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the chances of Stephanie McMahon returning to WWE following her leave of absence have “greatly diminished”.

Meltzer also stated that “more and more people” are bringing up the recent lawsuit brought against WWE by Major League Wrestling, which Stephanie McMahon was specifically named in. The Court Bauer-run promotion sued WWE in January, alleging that the company had interfered in their business dealings, leading to various media deals with Fite TV, VICE, and Tubi falling through.

It has been claimed that it was Stephanie McMahon who personally called FOX to get MLW’s deal with Tubi cancelled. It has also been reported that McMahon met with Tubi officials, “pressuring” them into stopping their deal. If MLW’s deal with Tubi had gone ahead, they would have gone head-to-head with NXT 2.0 on Tuesday nights.

Since Stephanie McMahon’s departure, Catherine Newman has taken over much of her previous role, although her official title is ‘Executive Vice President and Head of Marketing’ rather than ‘Chief Brand Officer’.