WWE’s Head of Communications Chris Legentil has said that the company has been “compliant all the way along and all the way through” with “active legal situations”.
Legentil, who is also the company’s Executive Vice President for Talent Relations, was speaking to The Atlantic’s Richard Deitsch on his podcast, ‘Sports Media with Richard Deitsch’.
In the wide-ranging interview, the WWE executive spoke about ongoing legal matters, the current management structure, talent contracts, the possibility of working with AEW, and more.
During the episode released early on Thursday morning, Deitsch asked Legentil about some of the more negative stories that his department has to deal with. Deitsch specifically mentioned reporting by POST Wrestling’s John Pollock and Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.
Deitsch said:
Reporters such as Brandon Thurston and John Pollock, I’ll give those guys a shout. I think they really do good work. They’ve reported on the federal lawsuit accusing Vince McMahon and another former executive of sexual misconduct…How would you assess how forthcoming the WWE has been when it comes to Vince McMahon and the lawsuits that have been out there?
Legentil responded:
I would say that related to active legal situations, there’s clearly a limit on what we are able to say. But that said, as that investigation has gone on over time, we’ve been compliant all the way along and all the way through. And when we have the opportunity to answer questions, we do. And when there’s not that opportunity, we don’t.
And the media we found have understood that because they realize that sometimes there’s a lane we can take and other times there’s not.
But we agree that Brandon and John do good work. And, you know, you see them as regulars at our shows, at our press conferences, and they’re doing their jobs as reporters and we’re doing our job as the company.
When asked as a follow-up whether the current management set-up in the company was the right one, given “issues that have perhaps been problematic for the WWE in the past”, Legentil stated:
So let me be clear on this point. We could not have better management than Nick Khan and Paul Levesque. They are excellent business people, but they understand the direction that the company needs to go. And I think that you’ve probably seen that in a lot of talent comments that they believe in the vision that Nick and Paul have.
And I think that more broadly, when you look at the fact that WWE is now part of TKO and a part of a media company that is run by Ari Emanuel, Mark Shapiro, Andrew Schleimer, Maura McGreevy, really top-level executives, that management has never been stronger. And people, both talent and current and future employees should feel great about that.
Elsewhere in the interview, Legentil poured cold water on any notion of AEW and WWE working on a combined card in the future. He said simply, “No interest” and followed up:
I just want to make clear, there’s definitely a variety of excellent talent that don’t currently reside in WWE. So there’s no shot there that’s being fired. It’s just to say that the answer to your question is that no conversation has been had in relation to that.
Legentil was very positive about the recent hiring of Joe Tessitore:
He is a massive WWE fan, right? He’s not somebody who’s coming in and he’ll give you some light detail on Roman Reigns and some of the top, top, top talent at WWE. He can go deep on backstories of the Wyatt Sicks. He can tell you what’s going on with the micro.
And we believe that because he has the bright-light experience of that ESPN top play-caller combined with the knowledge of WWE, that he’s in a great position to succeed. But ultimately the fans are going to decide that and we’re excited for Joe to get started with us shortly.
Deitsch also asked Legentil about the factors that go into negotiating talent contracts, including how a specific dollar amount is arrived at. Legentil said:
That’s a great question. It is one that we work on here internally with a small group of folks who includes, of course, Nick Khan and Triple H. Triple H really is the head of talent. I mean, of course, there’s a large talent relations team here, but this is a group that is all working for Paul “Triple H” Levesque. He is our head of content, as you know, but also really the head of talent here.
We look at a variety of factors from what the market bears to how people are performing on social media, how their clips perform in the show, what the viewership looks like when they are on TV. And a variety of those factors all are brought together. And we come up with a number that we believe is fair for the talent and for the company.
…
Our job on the talent relations team alongside Nick and Paul is to provide the overarching deal points, the main points that everybody wants to zero in on, whether that’s the compensation, the years, types of things that folks are looking to do, perhaps outside of their WWE contracts, if they have desires to be on TV or in movies or what have you, and figuring out something that works for both the company and the talent. And then once those points are agreed upon, then we can talk to legal about putting that onto paper.
Legentil had high praise for CM Punk:
CM Punk has been fantastic. Now I know you’re going to say, what else is Chris going to say? But the reality is CM Punk has been nothing but excellent to work with in the entirety of the time that I’ve known him.
Now, albeit it’s what, eight months since he came back. But he is somebody who is eager to do more outside of just his responsibilities on TV. He’s polite, he’s thoughtful, he’s kind. And it’s a great example of you really can’t judge somebody based on what you read about them or hear about them. You really have to experience it yourself because I’ve never had anything but a wonderful interaction with CM Punk.
Despite some negative comments about her time in WWE from Ronda Rousey, Legentil said the company was open to having her back:
We saw the news recently about she’s going to be having her second child and we’re super excited for her. We love Ronda. She’s been a great person to work with on a lot of levels.
And, you know, if somebody wants to come back, it’s always a conversation we’re happy to have. I mean, life is very long and, you know, things change both behind the scenes and in front of the camera over time. And we’re definitely open to have conversations when it makes sense.
