Source: The Xavierite
Coming out of the ‘Royal Rumble’ pay-per-view, one of the biggest events for the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the company is once again wrapped in controversy as former Chairman Vince McMahon receives yet another allegation of sexual misconduct.
Former WWE employee Janel Grant has come forward with a federal lawsuit against former executive McMahon for alleged sexual misconduct and sex-trafficking. Grant was previously a coordinator in the legal department for the WWE.
Grant, who lived in the same building as McMahon, states that he offered her a job at the WWE in 2019 after the passing of her parents. Believing that this would be a life-changing opportunity, Grant accepted the offer.
However, this would soon lead to McMahon pressuring her into sexual encounters with himself and others in the company.
The lawsuit was supported by screenshots of text messages exchanged between Grant and McMahon, in which McMahon would explicitly describe his sexual fantasies and previous encounters with Grant. Additionally, messages showed McMahon telling Grant that he’d pass around her explicit images to other WWE employees and then describe their reactions in detail.
The lawsuit also states that in July 2021, McMahon offered sexual favors from Grant in order to persuade a WWE Superstar to re-sign with the company. While the Superstar is not named, the description of him being a “world-famous athlete and former UFC Heavyweight Champion” in the lawsuit points to ten-time world champion, Brock Lesnar.
Once McMahon’s wife Linda found out about the relationship in Jan. 2022, Grant was pressured into signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to ensure her silence on his misconduct in exchange for $3 million. However, Grant states that the payments stopped after $1 million, leading her to void the agreement and publicly sue McMahon.
Grant wishes to come forward with her experience in order to help prevent other women from meeting the same fate.
With the news coming out this past Thursday afternoon, many called for the WWE to finally cut ties with McMahon for good.
On Friday night, Deadline reported that McMahon had resigned from his role at WWE and UFC parent company TKO Group Holdings’ board of directors.
The report included a statement from McMahon that stated, “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 … I intend to vigorously defend myself against these baseless accusations, and look forward to clearing my name.”
McMahon added that out of respect for the WWE fanbase, the Superstars, TKO, and all of their employees, he would resign from his role as executive chairman and member of TKO’s board of directors.
Though the decision was the right thing to do, let it be perfectly clear that McMahon deserves no praise. The decision was influenced by the pushback the company was already beginning to receive.
A few hours before his resignation, longtime sponsor Slim Jim announced that it would be pausing its sponsorship deal with the WWE as a result of the “disturbing allegations” against McMahon.
The announcement stated, “Slim Jim values integrity and respect in all of our partnerships, … Given the recent disturbing allegations against Vince McMahon, at this time we’ve decided to pause our promotional activities with WWE. This decision reflects our commitment to our brand values and responsibility to our community.”
Though Slim Jim resumed their sponsorship after McMahon’s resignation, the potential loss of this partnership was a big deal for the company. The two parties announced their partnership on Aug. 3, 2023, which is “the largest sponsorship deal in WWE history,” according to the press release.
The deal was for Slim Jim to sponsor last year’s ‘SummerSlam’ and ‘Survivor Series,’ as well as this year’s ‘Royal Rumble’ and ‘WrestleMania 40’ events. However, the consequences of the allegations resulted in the company pulling its sponsorship from this past Saturday night’s ‘Royal Rumble’ pay-per view and future events.
This is not an isolated incident, as McMahon announced his “retirement” from the WWE in July 2022 at the same time reports came out about him paying multiple women $14.6 million in hush money, also over sexual misconduct.
An investigation was then launched by WWE’s board of directors, though Grant alleges it focused more on the fact that McMahon used the company’s money and did not properly report the payments as business expenses, rather than the actual allegations.
In Jan. 2023, McMahon returned to the company to negotiate the sale of WWE to UFC’s parent company, Endevor Group Holdings. He was later a part of the merger between the UFC and WWE, which led to his role as executive chairman for TKO.
With McMahon finally being cut off from the company, it seems that a huge dark cloud has finally been lifted from the WWE. However, it doesn’t change the fact that Grant and many other women have been victimized as a result of McMahon’s countless displays of abuse of power.