When Vince McMahon announced a merger between WWE and UFC to become a unified super entity under the TKO banner for Endeavor, it gave some fans whiplash.

Sure, it was no secret that WWE was looking to make a deal, as Mr. McMahon effectively said as much when he returned to the promotion after a semi-coerced retirement the year prior, but of the options on the board, only one seemingly allowed the McMahon family to remain in a position of power, with deals to Disney, Comcast, or Amazon presumably more traditional sales, as opposed to a dubiously defined merger.

Some shareholders took offense to this decisionmaking, as they felt as though the promotion didn't do what was in the best interests of the investors in favor of taking the deal that instead benefitted the McMahons most of all, as was initially reported by the Hollywood reporter.

A suit, unsealed in the Delaware Court of Chancery on Nov. 22, alleges that McMahon pushed a “quick sale” of WWE to Endeavor chief Ari Emanuel, his “close friend and longtime ally” who proposed a sweetheart deal that allowed the wrestling mogul to stay on as executive chairman of TKO Group and avoid scrutiny in connection with sexual misconduct allegations that could’ve ousted him from the company. According to the complaint filed by investors, WWE board members “conjured up a sham sales process” designed to favor Endeavor and “exclude other bidders seeking to axe” McMahon, disregarding at least two all-cash offers with betters terms.

According to the lawsuit, other external companies offered up all-cash offers with very generous terms, including one with a per share evaluation of $95-100 and another in a similar ballpark of $90-97.50, but they were rejected without counteroffers. Because WWE wanted to keep things “in the family” and sell the company that would allow McMahon to keep a title and his family in a position of power, as opposed to the “complete ouster” that would have come from other outlets, the lawsuit figures, the promotion didn't do it's duty to the shareholders.

“If McMahon was found to have breached his duty of loyalty, WWE stockholders could have sought his removal as a director. Such scrutiny appears to have prompted McMahon to seek a ‘quick’ sale of the Company that also allowed him to continue running WWE,” the lawsuit states via the Hollywood Reporter.

“Not only did he secure a future for himself at post-merger WWE, McMahon also stuffed his pockets and those of his loyalists before agreeing to a deal.”

All things considered, the lawsuit asserts that WWE took an offer that was “far below” the value set by the market in order to please and appease Mr. McMahon and, as a result, didn't make an effort to “negotiate in good faith.”

What will come out of this lawsuit? At this point, it's impossible to know, but any time a billion-dollar company goes up for sale, lawsuits are bound to happen;  this situation, while under different circumstances, is far from unique.

What if Shane and Vince McMahon tag teamed up in WWE?

Taking things in a slightly less serious direction, Bruce Prichard recently discussed Vince McMahon on his podcast, Something to Wrestle, and the prospects of the billion-dollar CEO teaming up with his son to become a top-level tag team within the WWE Universe.

While the union never quite became a full-time thing, as they only wrestled 13 matches as a team, usually with a third “real” wrestler to round out their unit, Prichard recalls discussions about the duo becoming a legit tag team all the same.

“I'm sure there was discussion about it at some point one way or the other,” Bruce Prichard said via Fightful. “There were probably a lot of what-ifs and would have been a lot of heat, but for whatever reason just never really happened. I thought that they were a great duo during the time of just immense heat for Vince and The Corporation. Shane was a big part of that. So I think that without a doubt it was discussed, but nothing really ever came to fruition, obviously. I do think that it would have been solid man. People would talk about that. They would have liked that.”

Would it have been cool to see an all-McMahon run with the WWE Tag Team Title? You bet; Vince only had two title runs during his on-again, off-again wrestling career for 41 total days as champion, and Shane didn't fare much better, with just three title reigns for a combined 153 days on top, including his most recent tag team run with The Miz back in 2019. While fans may have ultimately turned on a long-term tag team paring if they went on an extended run, it certainly would have been entertaining to see all the same.