The news of Vince McMahon announcing his retirement from WWE was picked up by top mainstream media websites yesterday.

CNN, Variety, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC, The Guardian, FOX News, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, USA Today, LA Times, CBS News, Deadspin, Sportico, The Athletic, and other major publications all covered McMahon’s retirement. McMahon also was trending on Google Trends with over 200,000 searches yesterday, which is what a regular WWE premium live event does when it comes to searches.

The Wall Street Journal is reportedly coming out with an even bigger story on Vince that is said to be very damaging which might explain why McMahon all of a sudden pulled the trigger to retire. There are those who believe that the story, which is said to be released soon, is so bad that McMahon left even before this Monday’s Raw which is taking place from his favorite arena – Madison Square Garden in New York.

Vince also departed without saying one final goodbye in person in front of the WWE Universe and without any pomp and circumstances, leaving his daughter Stephanie to deliver his message on Smackdown.

What happens to the WWE Board of Directors investigation remains to be seen. McMahon said previously that he would accept any outcome of the investigation and him retiring suggests that the conclusions from this investigation or anything that was coming later, was worse than everyone else thought. With McMahon no longer being in charge and pretty much not on WWE’s books anymore, there’s no punishment that the company can apply on him after the investigation is over.

Vince remains the largest shareholder of WWE and promised to help wherever he can if asked.