2022 is turning out to be quite the year for wrestling fans. In the past few weeks, things really turned up a notch. Injuries to CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Cody Rhodes. MJF drama no showing for AEW signings, and then dropping an epic pipebomb promo that blurs the line between a work and a shoot on live TV. Jeff Hardy being arrested for DUI. Popular female star Sasha Banks potentially being fired by WWE. Daughter of Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, stepped away from the WWE (but just temporarily as we shall see) leading to many speculating about corporate heat. And then finally the news everyone has been talking about, Vince McMahon and his affair.

Being a wrestling fan when growing up, I received a call from my father telling me if I heard that Vince McMahon stepped down as WWE CEO. This is how big this news was. Everyone was talking about this.

Vince allegedly paid a $3 million settlement to cover up an affair he had with a departing employee. McMahon, 76, recruited the former assistant, 41, on a $100,000 base. And then increased her pay to $200,000 just after the alleged sexual connection with her began. An independent inquiry began in April and has unearthed other gag orders involving harassment claims from former staff against McMahon & John Laurinaitis, WWE’s head of expertise connections, and over decades. She was an assistant and John and was promoted to director after her affair with Vince who paid her $3 million and made her sign a NDA to not speak about the relationship.

Vince McMahon, who has been CEO of WWE for 40 years (1982) voluntarily stepped down as CEO after the WWE board of directors opened an investigation into the alleged $3 million payout.

Stephanie McMahon has returned to be WWE’s interim CEO until the investigation is wrapped up. Just to be clear, Vince McMahon is still backstage at the shows for WWE Raw and Smackdown and is still in charge of making the creative decisions. He still runs the place.

Many people are saying that this is it for Vince McMahon. That this will be his downfall. I would beg to differ. What will save Vince is the fact the $3 million payout was his own money and not corporate money. It has also come out that the relationship Vince had with the 41 year old paralegal was consensual. Definitely a PR mess for WWE but Vince will recover. It is likely that John Laurinaitis will take the hit. It will be his head on the chopping block while Vince returns as WWE CEO.

WWE fans were shocked (but not surprised?) when all this came out. Last week, WWE said that Vince would open smackdown on Friday night. Hype. Many people were eagerly waiting to hear what Vince had to say. This is what happened:

Yup. Nothing. He did not address allegations. Just spoke for a few seconds and walked off. WWE Youtube actually disabled all comments on this video. They never do this, so you can probably gauge what some fans were saying. Apparently wrestlers and other employees are not too happy with how things are turning out.

But then Vince had a second chance! He appeared a few days later on Monday night Raw and said this:

He prepped us up for John Cena returning and then walked off. Even jumping off the stairs at the last camera shot which has created a whole new meme:

What to make of this all? Some say he is an ego-maniac who just wants the spotlight. Some say this was a way to boost ratings by getting people to tune in to hear what the boss has to say. In my opinion, this is a big F you. Vince knows he will still be around and he is rubbing it in. He is telling us that he IS WWE. He has built this company, and we wouldn’t have this type of sports entertainment if it wasn’t for him.

But the major reason for doing this, and why he will likely continue to do this, is for the shareholders. WWE is a publicly traded company worth billions. Vince coming out is telling the shareholder’s “look nothing is wrong and I am still in charge of this place”. The goal is to prevent the dump of the stock.

WWE stock has been struggling to breakout above $67. After news came out that Vince was stepping down as CEO, the stock had three large red sell off days. At time of writing, WWE is seeing a green day as the broader stock markets begin to recover and build a base.

What technical traders should focus on is the $63 level. We broke above this level back on May 25th 2022. It confirmed a major breakout for the stock. This level then became support, and you can see that buyers did jump in when we retested $63 around June 13th. Unfortunately, fundamental news provided enough selling pressure to see this support break.

What was once support, now becomes resistance. WWE stock can bounce back to $63, but we should expect to see a wall of sellers there. The bullish case? If the buyers manage to beat out the buyers and we close above $63, the bulls have reclaimed support and the stock will continue to move higher. This is the more likely case given the fact more people will begin to realize that Vince McMahon isn’t going anywhere.

Zooming out to the weekly timeframe will show you how important this $63 zone is. This is a resistance level which acted as the upper portion of the range since April of 2021. The breakout a few weeks ago had the bulls very excited, but the stock is now failing on the retest. If we can get a weekly close back above $63, this would strengthen the case for a continuation rally rather than a major sell off. Expect a battle between the bulls and the bears.

Vince McMahon stepping down as CEO temporarily did surprise many people. Some are betting that this will be the downfall of WWE. Vince will likely be reinstated as CEO. The damage will be the PR side of things. Many wrestling fans are already unhappy about how things are conducted in WWE. Especially the firing of top talent for budgetary reasons when WWE is making the most money it has ever made.

Current news might hinder any momentum for a WWE sale for the time being. Talent relationships might be tarnished. Morale could drop, but the WWE juggernaut will continue on.