(SNH) — “Amazing week.”

I mean, that’s one way to put it.

“We just had an amazing week,” WWE head of creative Paul Levesque said. “The Rock joining our board. Just sold out the Royal Rumble and put 48,000 people in Tropicana Field. I choose to focus on the positive. And, yes, there is a negative, but I want to focus on that and keep it to that.”

“Amazing” is a relative term so, I guess, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But man, what could have been.

WWE and its owner, Endeavor, announced that they’ve entered a partnership with Netflix to bring their flagship television show, WWE Raw, to the streaming service beginning in 2025 in a reported 10-year, $5 Billion deal.

With a B… Billion!

Movie star and former wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was also named to the TKO board of directors.

Netflix is about to smell what The Rock is cookin’. Unfortunately, the deal came with a stench.

Just two days after the announcement came a lawsuit against former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon by former staffer Janel Grant who says the 78-year-old pressured her into sex with him and other employees.

The accusations are sickening.

In one encounter, McMahon is accused of saying “No means yes” and “Take it, b—h”. He’s accused of other horrendous acts and sending sexually explicit content to superstar Brock Lesnar whom WWE was trying to resign at the time.

McMahon has since stepped down from his position, “out of respect” for WWE and TKO, but denies all wrongdoing.

“I stand by my prior statement that Ms. Grant’s lawsuit is replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and is a vindictive distortion of the truth,” he said in the statement. “I intend to vigorously defend myself against these baseless accusations and look forward to clearing my name.”

These are just the latest allegations directed at McMahon who was first accused of sexual assault by a former female referee in 1992 for an alleged incident in the 1980s. And in 2022, McMahon disclosed paying more than $12 million to multiple women to resolve other sexual misconduct complaints.

TKO stock jumped $13 after the Netflix announcement to nearly $90 per share but, since the scandal, it has dropped to around $82.

If there is a “positive” to look at, as Levesque said, it’s that WWE is entering the time of year known as WrestleMania season. Mania is the Super Bowl of wrestling. It’s the event with the biggest matches of the year and the culmination of all major storylines.

The 40th edition of WrestleMania will be held at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field April 6-7 in front of more than 65,000 “Manics” each night.

But when it rains, it pours.

Monday, it was announced that one of WWE’s biggest stars, CM Punk would be missing the event with a worn right triceps muscle.

CM Punk was scheduled to “fulfill his dream” and wrestle in the main event verses Seth Rollins for the World Championship. Levesque and WWE and now scrambling to recreate the card and find a new main event for their most important spectacle of the year.

Karma?

Nah, sometimes the script writes itself.

Ryan Slocum is a writer for Sports News Highlights.

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