A Wednesday hearing in the WWE shareholders’ lawsuit over the 2023 Endeavor-WWE merger saw Vince McMahon’s legal team defend his use of the encrypted messaging app Signal, telling the Delaware Chancery Court there is no gap in the communication record that should worry the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit, brought by a group of WWE shareholders led by an Ohio labor union pension fund, alleges that McMahon predetermined the company’s path into a merger with Endeavor’s UFC to form TKO, cutting off other potential bidders and costing shareholders money. The plaintiffs filed a motion last month seeking sanctions in the form of adverse inferences against the defendants, arguing that key Signal communications, regular text messages, and McMahon’s own handwritten notes were not preserved during a period when the executives were under a legal obligation to retain them.
Per a Bloomberg Law article published Wednesday, McMahon’s attorney, Haley Stern of Kirkland & Ellis, told the court that McMahon is “a prolific texter,” with 22,000 messages from multiple platforms already produced to investors. From the article, summarizing Stern’s argument:
“McMahon’s attorneys preserved data from his personal devices, even after they were seized by federal authorities investigating sexual misconduct allegations against him, she said. But Signal data sought by the investors wasn’t available for retrieval until after those devices were returned in October 2025. The investors argue messages apparently missing from chats on Signal, an encrypted platform that can be set to have content disappear, could’ve been relevant to the litigation.”
Eric Leon of Latham & Watkins, representing the non-Vince defendants in the case, including WWE, told the court the deal in question was negotiated face to face.
“These parties negotiated this deal really the old fashioned way. They did it with dinners and lunches, and they did it over the phone, and we produced all of the phone records.”
The judge has not ruled on the sanctions motion.
The Signal references trace back to a February 2023 exchange between McMahon and WWE president Nick Khan around the WrestleMania 39 creative direction, with McMahon asking Khan whether Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes were aware of the new plan. Khan responded with the single word “Langis.” McMahon’s reply, “What in the blue hell is ‘Langis’ lol,” prompted Khan to tell him to read it backwards. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit have argued the exchange was Khan directing McMahon to move the conversation off conventional text and onto Signal, where messages could be set to auto-delete.
Plaintiffs have alleged that McMahon, Khan, Paul Levesque, Stephanie McMahon Levesque, former WWE chief of staff Brad Blum, and current TKO CEO Ari Emanuel all used Signal during the relevant preservation window, and that at least one chat involving each of them had auto-delete enabled. Plaintiffs have also asked the court to investigate whether code-named Signal group chats existed, including one they say may have been called “Stunner.”
A trial in the case is currently scheduled for June 2026.
