Ari Emanuel’s new book, “Roll the Calls: A Memoir,” chronicles his “classic rags-to-riches career” as an agent in Hollywood and as an executive. The TKO CEO and executive chairman also offered his viewpoint on The Wall Street Journal’s report on Vince McMahon.
In July 2022, The Journal reported that McMahon paid four women $12 million in hush money payments to secure nondisclosure agreements to keep secret allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity. McMahon would soon resign after the report’s release. Emanuel wrote a detailed account of when he found out about the story.
I was at Wimbledon when The Wall Street Journal dropped its first bombshell report: Vince making secret payouts to several women to settle harassment suits. I stared at my phone, then did something I never do: slipped it into my pocket. The rest of the match I didn’t look at the thing once. But I felt it in there like some tiny animal, wiggling, buzzing, chirping. People asking if I’d seen the story. Asking what it meant for the company. For me. Truth was — I didn’t know. And now, months later, I still don’t. As I walked out of Wimbledon, Vince called and assured me the charges were false. But he also said he was going to step down, for the good of the company. His daughter, whom I’ve always remembered fondly from our first meeting, would take over. A short time after that, however, Vince changed his mind and took back the company. What a mess. Such a mess, in fact, that I can see only one solution, and now I’m steadily pitching that solution to Vince. Vince, old buddy: Sell us your company. The idea is to merge Vince’s wrestling empire with UFC, creating one giant fighting mega-organism. Vince can stay on as a sort of chairman emeritus. Shapiro and I get him into a room, show him all the things we’ve learned from UFC, the knowledge that we could bring to bear. We talk about running his company, but it’s more about saving the company. Because the whole enterprise is teetering. Vince, who’s having all manner of health problems, seems not to fully understand.
Emanuel’s negotiations with McMahon to merge WWE and Endeavor into what would be TKO were detailed in the shareholder lawsuit that was settled this year, including Emanuel’s voice memos that were made public. McMahon would return to WWE as executive chairman in January 2023 to oversee the merger.
In his book, Emanuel wrote about his months-long negotiations with McMahon, which he described as “friendly, but also maddeningly slow.” He revealed how different his and McMahon’s styles of negotiating were until he, McMahon, Mark Shapiro and an unnamed WWE executive signed a deal “in the private room of a swanky restaurant.”
Then, in January 2024, the WSJ released another report that detailed Janel Grant’s sexual trafficking allegations against McMahon, which led to his resignation as TKO executive chairman. Emanuel offered his perspective on when Grant’s allegations were revealed.
And then…fuck. More revelations. The worst yet. Vince accused of defecating on a woman during a threesome. Incredible how many things in the world of business are undreamed of in business schools. These revelations are on a different level, orders of magnitude more troubling than the previous ones. Moments after they break, Shapiro calls. Ari—you reading this shit? Yes. We gotta get him out. Yeah. I know. All the way out the door, Ari. Right the fuck now. No emeritus position, no involvement in the company whatsoever. I know. You ready? Yeah. Shapiro dials; Vince answers right away. I know what needs to be done, I have clarity, but I’m feeling uncomfortable. So I deploy my go-to phrase— Tell him, Mark. Shapiro sighs. Vince, we’ve crossed several red lines and we’re in new territory here. We both wait, listening to the white noise. Finally Vince says— Okay. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it. Today. With these two enormously profitable companies now under one banner, which we call TKO, we hope this new structure of Endeavor will, at long last, thrill Wall Street. It doesn’t. The stock price doesn’t budge.
