WWE CEO Vince McMahon steps down amid misconduct investigation

Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss stock performance for WWE as Stephanie McMahon is set to replace Vince McMahon as the company’s CEO.

Video Transcript

BRIAN SOZZI: All right, shares of World Wrestling Entertainment, another stock that's going to be in focus today after news that Vince McMahon will be stepping down as CEO while the wrestling company's board investigates him for alleged misconduct. In the meantime, his daughter, Stephanie McMahon, will serve as interim CEO and chairwoman. You can see the shares down slightly here in the early going.

Look, this comes after, really, an extensive report by "The Wall Street Journal" a couple of days ago. But worth keeping in mind here, I think, two things. One, Stephanie McMahon is running the company. Obviously, that is Vince McMahon's daughter. So if there's any positive here from an investor's standpoint, at least she understands the company and what it has done in the history of the company.

And then but secondarily, look, they still control the company. "The Journal" story, early in the week, goes through great lengths at explaining that he still controls voting power of what ultimately would happen in this company. So just because Vince McMahon is leaving as CEO, he's still retaining his creative role inside the company, which one that he has valued for many, many years. Don't expect WWE to come in here and somebody to buy the company or be sold. It still runs in the McMahon family.

BRAD SMITH: There's a lot of other considerations, too, in terms of the partnerships that WWE had been able to take on over the course of this year, whether that be new individual partnerships on the name, image, and likeness front. Do you see some of those partners start to back out?

Do you also, across some of the corporate partnerships, whether that be in streaming or gaming, where WWE-- and I don't know who's gaming and gambling on WWE. But for all the partnerships that they've seen come about, where do you start to look across those?

And in the midst of this and in the wake of this investigation, do some of those start to kind of pull back on what they had charted going forward for, the eyeballs, the impressions, and the reach that the WWE was looking for? But that is just one of the impacts that they have to consider here. And it'll be interesting to see how Stephanie McMahon, who's taking over in the interim position and capacity right now, navigates all of that.

BRIAN SOZZI: And of course, the television deals, too.

BRAD SMITH: Massive.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, massive, indeed. Well--