Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: Brock Lesnar, Vince McMahon, wrestling

Vince McMahon Accused of Sex Trafficking, Assault in Bombshell Report

A new lawsuit filed by a former WWE employee reveals the shocking details of sexual misconduct allegations against Vince McMahon.

A new report from the Wall Street Journal, who broke the story of an investigation into Vince McMahon for hush money payments and sexual misconduct in 2022 that led to McMahon temporarily retiring from WWE before returning to force a sale to UFC-parent endeavor that created the sports entertainment conglomerate TKO, has dropped some new bombshell revelations. Normally, the phrase "bombshell revelation" can be used with a bit of hyperbole, but in this case, it may be underselling just how shocking the report is. Consider this a very strong content warning for sexual assault.

The WSJ report, written by Khadeeja Safdar with contributions from Joe Palazzolo and Ted Mann, discusses a lawsuit filed by Janel Grant, a former WWE employee who worked at the company's Connecticut headquarters in the legal department, which details claims of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and sex trafficking against McMahon, who is named as a defendant along with former WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis and WWE itself. The lawsuit also references several unnamed high-ranking WWE executives, including one who continued to work for the company after the TKO merger as non-party to the lawsuit, and one unnamed WWE star.

Warning:  the text below extensively quotes from Janel Grant's lawsuit and contains graphic and explicit descriptions of the details of her allegations. The lawsuit makes detailed claim after claim of misconduct, each worse than the last, with the lawsuit stating that while Grant "came to understand that McMahon expected the physical relationship to continue as part of her employment—she had no idea how sordid it would become, nor how the psychological torture and physical violence would leave her feeling helpless, isolated and trapped." Viewer discretion is advised.

In March 2020, according to the report, McMahon "began sharing sexually explicit photographs and videos of Ms. Grant (including pornographic content he recorded) with other men both inside and outside the company, including with members of the television production "tech" team, executive(s), producer(s), and a world-famous athlete and former UFC Heavyweight Champion with whom WWE was actively trying to sign to a new contract (and ultimately did sign that contract)."

It claims that "coercion was inherent in his increasingly depraved sexual demands" due to McMahon's "omnipotent position at WWE," and that Grant was ordered to keep their relationship secret, "including lying to maintain whatever cover stories he fabricated." The lawsuit alleges McMahon "exercised complete ownership and control over both her personal and professional lives."

The lawsuit claims McMahon "subjected Ms. Grant to acts of extreme cruelty and degradation that caused Ms. Grant to disassociate and/or become numb to reality in order to survive the horrific encounters. As an example, it notes that McMahon "defecated on Ms. Grant during a threesome, and then commanded her to continue pleasuring his 'friend'—with feces in her hair and running down her back—while McMahon went to the bathroom to shower off. Upon his return from the bathroom, McMahon and his 'friend' actively resumed the threesome, which lasted over an hour and a half, while Ms. Grant remained covered in McMahon's filth."

Another example claims McMahon and John Laurinaitis "sexually assaulted Ms. Grant inside Laurinaitis' office in WWE headquarters while colleagues were busy at their desks. Behind a locked door, the two men cornered her and pulled her in between them, forcibly touched her, before ultimately putting her on top of a table in between them. She begged them to stop, but they forced themselves on her, each taking turns restraining her for the other, while saying 'No means yes' and 'Take it, bitch.'"

The lawsuit further alleges that McMahon became aggressive during sexual encounters, noting that McMahon began to use "certain sex toys named after male WWE wrestlers and performers. McMahon named the sex toys so that the color of the toy matched the race of the wrestler—for example, a black 'dildo' would be named after an African American wrestler and a white 'dildo' would be named after a Caucasian wrestler."

In another shocking claim, the suit alleges McMahon told Grant about sharing explicit photos of her with a WWE referee, going on to say "McMahon described how WWE Referee left to masturbate and told Ms. Grant she had made a perfect stranger very happy." The suit claims it " further panicked her that these private and intimate photos, which included her face, were being shared with complete strangers."

According to the suit, Grant " felt threatened and distressed by the responses her pictures were getting. She made clear that she did not want any perception of her moving beyond the point of mere fantasy." However, within two months, according to the lawsuit, McMahon "recruited an individual whom he manipulatively referred to as his 'friend' to engage in a 'threesome' with McMahon and Ms. Grant. The 'friend' turned out to be McMahon's physical therapist at Alternative Clinic." When Grant expressed fear about the encounter, McMahon allegedly responded "by telling Ms. Grant for the first time that he loved her, stunning her into silence." The threesome in question would allegedly turn out to be the one involving defecation mentioned earlier.  The filing includes screenshots of iPhone messages allegedly from McMahon related to some of these matters.

The threesomes allegedly continued with the same unnamed person as, according to the lawsuit, McMahon "became more sadistic and his fantasies focused on control, such as choking, sensory deprivation, pain, humiliation, and group scenarios in which Ms. Grant was to be physically overwhelmed and subservient." At one point, McMahon is alleged to have texted Grant, "Do NOT knock on the door cause if I see U ::: I will rape U in the hallway,"

The lawsuit claims McMahon "openly shared explicit photographs and salacious stories about Ms. Grant with WWE crew at TV tapings" while Grant " sustained brutal and painful injuries, including bleeding, swelling, bruising, and spans of incontinence resulting from McMahon's forceful use of his fists, adult toys, and objects unsafe for vaginal insertion or penetration." During one encounter involving an "extra-large" sex toy, McMahon allegedly "ignored Ms. Grant's warning that the device was not meant for insertion and forcefully shoved the wand inside of her so deeply that it became stuck for a period."

The lawsuit goes on to accuse McMahon of directing Grant to engage in sexual activities with John Laurinaitis, saying McMahon "pressed Ms. Grant to make explicit photos and videos to send to Laurinaitis. McMahon orchestrated exchanges by instructing Ms. Grant when to create explicit content for Laurinaitis, including what to say, and provided her with notes to adjust her performance. McMahon then facilitated the exchange of explicit content back and forth between Ms. Grant and Laurinaitis."  McMahon later allegedly arranged a threesome between himself, Grant, and Laurinaitis, before he later "sent Ms. Grant to establish a schedule for when other men (including Physical Therapist and Laurinaitis) could have sex with Ms. Grant."

After another alleged threesome, Grant was allegedly transferred from her job in the legal department to Talent Relations, which John Laurinaitis headed,  which "came with the expectation, from both McMahon and Laurinaitis, that she engage with Laurinaitis sexually, both physically and with explicit content." In a text message screencapped in the report, McMahon allegedly told Grant she "should obey if Laurinaitis wanted to bring in yet more men." The lawsuit alleges that "forcible touching and overtly sexual behaviors became part of daily life when [Laurinaitis] was in the office." The suit claims Grant "reported interactions with Laurinaitis back to McMahon, for whom the stories served as a source of arousal."

The suit claims that McMahon told Grant to create sexual content for a former UFC star WWE wanted to sign a new contract, who WSJ says sources identified as Brock Lesnar, and that after he signed a new deal, McMahon texted Grant that "part of the deal was f***ing you." According to the report, the star later requested a video of Grant urinating, and, after receiving it, responded by calling her a "bitch." The suit claims there were several attempts to set up a sexual encounter between Grant and the star that never materialized. However, it does detail an encounter between McMahon and Grant where McMahon roleplayed as the wrestler. The report claims that McMahon was "so physically rough with Ms. Grant during this encounter, that Ms. Grant begged McMahon to stop numerous times, including loud cries of 'Help!' 'I'm serious!' and 'I'm scared!' as he – among other things – penetrated her, fisted her, pulled her hair, pinned her, shoved her, and open-palm slapped her. McMahon's assault caused Ms. Grant to break down weeping and curl into the fetal position with her arms pulled up to protect her face."

According to the report, the suit claims McMahon told Grant that his wife, Linda McMahon, discovered the affair as reasoning for requesting Grant sign a non-disclosure agreement for $3 million dollars. The suit claims McMahon only paid $1 million, citing that as justification to void the agreement and seek additional damages. However, even after signing the NDA, the suit alleges McMahon continued to abuse Grant, allegedly forcing her to perform oral sex on him and attempting to arrange an encounter with the aforementioned WWE star, though the suit notes that the encounter didn't end up happening.

The suit goes on to detail various expensive gifts given to Grant during her association with WWE. It claims that WWE and several unnamed executives were aware of the situation and "did nothing" about it. It claims that, due to the trauma of the events, Grant continues to suffer in her personal and professional life. It says that WWE was negligent in its handling of the situation, noting: "WWE, by commission and omission, allowed and tolerated sexual assault and humiliation and fostered a culture in which such acts would be tolerated; WWE, by commission and omission, retained McMahon and Laurinaitis despite actual and/or constructive knowledge of their propensity to entice, recruit, force, and/or coerce women into sexual acts based on the promise of hire, job security and advancement within the WWE; and WWE failed to warn Ms. Grant of the risk of harm to which she was subjected while employed by WWE." You can read the full court filing here.

McMahon, who secured a spot as Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of TKO as part of the sale to endeavor, appeared at the New York Stock Exchange along with other TKO, WWE, and UFC executives to celebrate the signing of a new TV rights deal with Netflix for WWE Raw. Previous reports on McMahon's alleged misconduct did not contain so many graphics, and did not name any specific accusers, though the scandals surrounding McMahon have repeatedly been named as liabilities for WWE and TKO in various SEC filings. McMahon, TKO, WWE, Laurenitis, and Lesnar have not commented on the new report as of press time.

UPDATE: In the wake of Thursday's allegations, TKO issued the following statement:

Mr. McMahon does not control TKO nor does he oversee the day-to-day operations of WWE. While this matter predates our TKO executive team's tenure at the company, we take Ms. Grant's horrific allegations very seriously and are addressing this matter internally.

McMahon himself also responded to the allegations via a statement from a spokesperson:

This lawsuit is replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and a vindictive distortion of the truth. He will vigorously defend himself.

UPDATE #2: Vince McMahon resigned from TKO and WWE on Friday Night, issuing the following statement:

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.

However, out of respect for the WWE Universe, the extraordinary TKO business and its board members and shareholders, partners and constituents, and all of the employees and Superstars who helped make WWE into the global leader it is today, I have decided to resign from my executive chairmanship and the TKO board of directors, effective immediately.

UPDATE #3: Appearing on the Law and Crime podcast, Ann Callis, attorney for Janel Grant, issued the following statement on Grant's behalf in response to McMahon's resignation:

She hopes any doors of secrecy have been blown off their hinges and that fresh air fills the headquarters, and she hopes those at the company, past and present, who fear speaking out about harm is a thing of the past. She wishes everyone peace.

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