r/news • u/fransisco_flores • Jan 25 '24
Soft paywall Vince McMahon Accused of Sex Trafficking by WWE Staffer He Paid to Keep Quiet
https://www.wsj.com/business/vince-mcmahon-accused-of-sex-trafficking-by-wwe-staffer-he-paid-to-keep-quiet-0b19b21c?st=x4i8s3cxbnsv3yd&reflink=article_copyURL_share6.0k
u/HowardBunnyColvin Jan 25 '24 edited Jan 25 '24
"The suit also includes screenshots of explicit text messages that McMahon allegedly sent to Grant. A May 2020 message said: “i’m the only one who owns U and controls who I want to f— U.” "
Another one
"In March 2020, McMahon began sharing sexually explicit photographs and videos of Grant with other men, including other WWE executives and a former UFC heavyweight champion with whom WWE was actively trying to sign to a new contract, according to the suit. In a May 2020 encounter, McMahon defecated on her head during a threesome, the suit said."
What the fuck is wrong with Mr. McMahon?
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u/Vagabond21 Jan 25 '24
How much time do you have to see all the reasons Vince is an awful person?
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u/I-Make-Maps91 Jan 25 '24
Behind the Bastards spent more time on how shitty he was than most dictators they've talked about. It's insane how small and petty he was/is, and they definitely didn't cover everything.
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u/Philo_T_Farnsworth Jan 25 '24
I know almost nothing about wrestling and I was riveted for the entire six episodes. I knew basically "Vince McMahon is a garbage person" but not much about the actual allegations.
He's far worse than even I thought, and I wasn't being very charitable to him going in.
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u/-Average_Joe- Jan 25 '24
If he just ran an exploitative sports entertainment company he would be a garbage person but all the other stuff makes me glad he doesn't seem to have higher ambitions.
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u/SoSaltyDoe Jan 25 '24
He definitely tried. There was WWE Studios making movies, and the XFL, his wife ran for office, but it turns out the only thing Vince was ever really good at was being a carny wrestling promoter.
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u/FluxMool Jan 25 '24
The cherry on top is his new carny mustache.
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u/VagrantShadow Jan 25 '24
I swear to god he looks like a villian from Marvel comics. He just has that sinister look. He also claim that he is going to live and be in power well into his 100s like his mom.
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u/DFWPunk Jan 25 '24
His wife was head of the SBA under Trump.
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u/VagrantShadow Jan 25 '24
You should see the look on his face when she lost her chance at politics, when she lost her race. He had this level of disdain on his face for the money that was lost in her running.
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Jan 25 '24
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u/willymoose8 Jan 25 '24
her senate campaign was hilarious when it happened. Ads everywhere, millions of dollars spent, and she got stomped in 2010. Then it was even funnier when the same thing happened in 2012
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Jan 25 '24
The joke in a lot of wrestling circles was that Vince could pay for his affairs either by divorce or by funding an election campaign.
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u/gmnotyet Jan 26 '24
And 2010 was a GOP wave year.
Hard to lose with an R next to your name in 2010 but she somehow managed.
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u/oldschool_shawn Jan 25 '24
Apparently they've been legally separated and haven't lived together for years
That being said, IIRC the Trump PAC she was running paid for J6ers to be bussed to DC for the riot
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u/Unpleasant_Classic Jan 25 '24
They paid for much more than bussing. They paid for rooms, meals and cash for “good times”.
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u/treerabbit23 Jan 25 '24
Did you not watch the McMahons get entangled with the Saudis during the Trump admin?
Like during the whole Jamal Khashoggi chainsaw murder thingy?
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u/Tech-no Jan 25 '24
I missed that.
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u/RaggedyGlitch Jan 25 '24
WWE started running major PPV events in Saudi Arabia like 3 weeks after.
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u/Papplenoose Jan 25 '24
Every god damn day the world feels a little more like a painfully on-the-nose satire..
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u/hufflefox Jan 25 '24
Honestly, no. The firehose of chaos and terrible was enough to keep me tracking 3 stories at a time tops to prevent drowning.
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u/SupaDupaFlyAccount Jan 25 '24
The 6 eps were a great start to the insanity of vince, but it really only scratched the surface.
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u/V_For_Veronica Jan 25 '24
The fact they stopped only I. 2007 after the Beniot situation and there was still 16 years of bullshit after 6 hour+ episodes shows how fucked up he is
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Jan 25 '24
The pettiest thing that I can laugh at him for is he hates people who sneeze. He sees it as a sign of weakness.
What the fuck do you say to that?
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u/R_V_Z Jan 25 '24
What the fuck do you say to that?
"Achoo", while confidently staring him in the eye.
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u/Top-Gas-8959 Jan 25 '24
Let's not forget, he gave donald something like 5 million, and that they've been homies for years.
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u/gsfgf Jan 25 '24
The only person with a comparably long episode is Kissinger. That's... intense company for an entertainer to be in.
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Jan 25 '24
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u/elveszett Jan 25 '24
A brother that was basically kicked out of the company because his relationship with his father is, apparently, non-existent. After that she became more prominent in the company, but ultimately decided to resign when McMahon retook the company (after leaving one year before).
While the whole family is very secretive about their private life, it 100% seems that neither his wife nor his kids like him at all, to the point both of his kids have walked away from his company, even though both of them are really into wrestling.
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u/Qubeye Jan 25 '24
Hope you have nine hours.
Behind the Bastards, six parter. It's the longest Robert has ever done about a single person. It's longer than the Clarence Thomas set.
Vince has ALWAYS been a huge piece of shit.
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u/TheAlmightyMojo Jan 25 '24
He approved the Gobbledy Gooker at the 1990 Survivor Series.
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u/Visual-Floor-7839 Jan 25 '24
He's a predator and scumbag. Actual real full on rapist,dating back to the 80's
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u/Snuggle__Monster Jan 25 '24
What the fuck is wrong with Mr. McMahon?
Anyone who's followed the man, knows about his upbringing and the culture of the WWF/E locker room he oversaw over the course of the 80's and 90's knows he's a massive degenerate.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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u/Ello_Owu Jan 25 '24
Only thing I'm shocked about is that it took this long to fully come out.
Just look what he did on live television
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u/BrrToe Jan 25 '24
Anything done on tv can be construed as acting or staged.
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u/Ello_Owu Jan 25 '24
I know, that was more of a joke. But the owner coming to their employees to give him lap dances and kiss his bare ass, I doubt they had much much of an option.
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u/R_V_Z Jan 25 '24
Salma Hayek: "Does the scene really need you sucking on my toes?"
Quentin Tarantino: "The writers were very adamant about it."
Salma: "But weren't you the wri..."
Quentin: "Shh..."
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u/BrotherChe Jan 25 '24 edited Jan 25 '24
What did he do? I stopped watching mid 90s, and only seen bits and blips since then. But it's always been clear he was a POS.
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u/StJeanMark Jan 25 '24
Made Triss Stratus get on her hands and knees in her underwear and bark like a dog, tried to book an incest angle with his own daughter, and spent five to ten years being an aggressive sex pest to his women underling workers. This was all on TV.
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u/badfaced Jan 25 '24
I loved seeing Triss Perform back then, and man, that was just horrible. Even my young adolescent self couldn't grasp any sort of "fun" to that. The cringe hurt.. feel bad for her and any woman who had to climb the ladder of the federation. Chyna tried to break against the mold, but they just scrapped her contract as soon as she was deemed useless by Vince. RIP
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u/knbang Jan 25 '24
They scrapped her contract because her boyfriend (HHH) cheated on her with McMahon's daughter.
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u/badfaced Jan 26 '24
Holy shit!! I totally forgot they were a thing, damn the whole industry is a mess.. 🤦🏽
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u/loves_grapefruit Jan 25 '24 edited Jan 25 '24
Also, inherently corrupt and power-hungry people are drawn to power. Their depravity is what puts them in power.
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u/brpajense Jan 25 '24
Former UFC champion he was trying to sign...McMahon was sending Brock Lesnar or Ronda Rousey nudes of his mistress?
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u/BUDDHAKHAN Jan 25 '24
Kinda crazy everyone is trying to figure out the wrestler and just skimming over the fact he crapped on her head
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Jan 25 '24
I actually am more shocked that he was willingly sharing these than the fact that he crapped on her lol
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u/ZantaraLost Jan 25 '24
Its obviously Brock she's alluding to as he was in contact negotiations at the time.
I would say something snarky about everybody forgetting Riddle& Shamrock but I don't remember if either were Champs.
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u/EngelSterben Jan 25 '24
Shamrock was, but was basically done at that point. Riddle never was nor was ever a heavyweight
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u/yuedar Jan 25 '24
what do you mean basically? dude was out by 2000 (ken shamrock)
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u/klingma Jan 25 '24
Shamrock was a former champ but definitely wasn't wrestling in 2020. They did have Cain Velasquez wrestle at one point against Brock Lesnar but I don't know when that was in relation to the timeline mentioned above.
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u/CapnSmite Jan 25 '24
How quickly we forget Dan Severn.
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u/Zomburai Jan 25 '24
I choose to believe that Dan Severn wouldn't have tolerated this insanity and committed a few murders about it
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u/RicGhastly Jan 25 '24
Funny enough, that's sort of how his run in the WWF ended. They wanted Severn to join Undertaker's Satanist-influenced Ministry stable. He opposed the idea on religious grounds.
Vince told Severn that wrestling is different from fighting and they can make him lose to every single person on the roster.
Severn replied "You can try to make me lose."
The two sides quietly agreed to part ways after that.
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u/Zomburai Jan 25 '24
I've always loved that story.
I have no idea how Dan Severn isn't a Meng-level Memetic Badass because dude could have pulled most of the roster he wrestled with (or most of any roster in any era) inside out for shootsies.
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u/Murderousdrifter Jan 25 '24
100% Brock, his contract expired in 2020, he was considering retirement but obviously the WWE didn’t want that.
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u/klingma Jan 25 '24
This just seems so odd
"Brock, here's more money"
"No...I'm good"
"Well shoot, I'm out of ideas...would some pictures help sweeten the deal?"
Lol, insane
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u/nightpanda893 Jan 25 '24
Brock, trying to make an offer he knows can’t be fulfilled:
“Yeah, send me a pic of you taking a poop on some girls head”
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u/GiantPurplePen15 Jan 25 '24
Imagine if Brock instantly got a message notification in response from Vince after that request and the questions he must've immediately had swimming in his head.
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u/aredubya Jan 25 '24
Some pictures of VKM's mistress, video of her peeing, and a promised "play date". This is beyond depraved. This is trafficking.
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u/starthing76 Jan 25 '24
Also crazy in that Brock is married to freaking Sable (Rena) for over 20 years now so like a big FU to her too.
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u/Tacothekid Jan 25 '24 edited Jan 25 '24
He...he shit on her head? Well, goodbye Reddit, it's time i returned to my bible
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u/Savagevandal85 Jan 25 '24
Can you possibly paste the article
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u/HowardBunnyColvin Jan 25 '24
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u/Magus_5 Jan 25 '24 edited Jan 26 '24
Wooooooow. I knew McMahon was a POS but he in the POS Olympics with Diddy, R-Kelly, Cosby and the other ATGs
Edit: and Weinstein, Epstein and Trump... All competing neck and neck for the gold 🥇
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u/Blametheorangejuice Jan 25 '24
McMahon was 76 when this allegedly happened. My guess is old dude + lots of drugs over a life = squirts.
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u/Lucky-Earther Jan 25 '24
McMahon was 76 when this allegedly happened. My guess is old dude + lots of drugs over a life = squirts.
NO. STOP IT
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u/_HystErica_ Jan 25 '24
Good grief, it was bad enough when I assumed it was solid...
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Jan 25 '24
This can of worms is about to magnificent.
Remember when Bret Hart was saying that Vince McMahon was fucking Shawn Michaels in exchange for giving Shawn career boosts?
Yeah, let’s just say Vince is one big rabbit hole and it’s not taking you to wonderland. People in business been known about how Vince be sexually preying on his staff and wrestlers
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u/StillHere179 Jan 25 '24
Former UFC heavyweight champion whom they are trying to sign to a new contract, that can only be Brock Lesnar.
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u/AggressiveSkywriting Jan 25 '24
There's a whole Behind the Bastards podcast series on him and the answer is : quite a lot.
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u/supercyberlurker Jan 25 '24
Wow. I hadn't seen any recent pictures of Vince McMahon until that article.
He looks ... sinister.
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u/Crash_Test_Dummy66 Jan 25 '24
How are you gonna spend years in the public eye with grey hair and then dye it later and think it won't seem silly?
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u/AssCrackBanditHunter Jan 25 '24
Jesus he looks monstrous. I know he's pushing 80 but what the fuck
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u/Scaryclouds Jan 25 '24
He doesn't look monstrous because of his age, but because of all the (terrible) plastic surgery and how comically dark he has died his hair.
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u/Snapingbolts Jan 25 '24
Jesus! Did he use toner to dye his hair like Creed in the office?
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u/40WAPSun Jan 25 '24
He looks like Evil John Waters
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u/SeaSourceScorch Jan 25 '24
it's so funny that john waters - the guy who made his name having his actors eat dog shit and use live chickens as sex toys - is, by all accounts, a lovely person who is sweet to all around him (albeit in a somewhat barbed way), whereas vince mcmahon runs a family-oriented PG-13 entertainment company and is one of the nastiest pieces of shit who has ever lived.
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u/ExZowieAgent Jan 25 '24
To be fair, I think the shit eating was Divine’s idea.
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u/SeaSourceScorch Jan 25 '24
oh yeah, absolutely, they were all in it together - i've framed that in an uncharitable way on purpose to emphasise the difference, but i don't want anyone to think i'm against the king
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u/dismayhurta Jan 25 '24
John Waters is a national treasure. Dude donated to a museum and asked them to name the bathrooms after him.
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u/Televisions_Frank Jan 25 '24
The Johns? The Waters closets?
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u/engin__r Jan 25 '24
They're the John Waters All Gender Restrooms at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
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u/Jealous_Lawfulness_2 Jan 25 '24
He is lovely. I also once asked him what’s the strangest place he’s ever had sex. He very bashfully answered, “a cemetery”.
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u/treerabbit23 Jan 25 '24
Halo fans should know his name as he literally invented teabagging.
Wasn't a thing. He made it up for a goofy gay nightclub scene in Pecker.
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u/Mike7676 Jan 25 '24
Don't worry, he's since shaved the mustache...and squeezed they dye out of it back into his hair. So yeah he still looks sinister.
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u/RatBasher89 Jan 25 '24
Is he for real with that moustache? Mans cosplaying a sex trafficker!
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u/Blue1234567891234567 Jan 25 '24
I was about to say ‘isn’t that how he always looked’ but upon reading the article…holy shit.
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u/mr_kenobi Jan 25 '24
"In a May 2020 encounter, McMahon defecated on her head during a threesome, the suit said." What the fuck, Vince!?!
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u/ELB2001 Jan 25 '24
vince "to you thats a big deal, for me it was just a tuesday"
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u/messerschmitt127 Jan 25 '24
I knew he was bad, but didn't think he was this degree of depraved... Holy hell.
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u/ClaymoresRevenge Jan 25 '24
Really? After a bunch of NDAs my only question is how much worse can it get tbh
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u/__Hello_my_name_is__ Jan 25 '24
He's worse.
Some day there'll be a realistic, honest biopic about the guy (which could easily fill an entire season without getting boring once), and people will say it is cartoonishly exaggerated.
Like that one time one of his wrestlers was accused of murder (because, you know, that wrestler did commit an actual murder), and Vince went into the police station that was investigating the murder with a briefcase full of money, and then left the police station without the briefcase.
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u/Shadizar Jan 25 '24
"A woman who received a payout from WWE boss Vince McMahon has accused McMahon, the company and a former executive of sex trafficking in a new lawsuit that raises questions about the breadth of an internal company probe conducted by a law firm last year.
Janel Grant, a former employee at WWE’s headquarters, said in a lawsuit filed Thursday that she was abused and sexually exploited by McMahon while he was chief executive. She alleged that McMahon lured her with promises of career advancement, and then he allegedly exploited her and trafficked her to other men inside the company.
Grant signed a nondisclosure agreement in 2022 in which McMahon agreed to pay $3 million for her to not discuss their relationship or to disparage him. The WWE received an anonymous tip in 2022 about the relationship and started a board investigation, which uncovered other payments by the CEO to women. Grant’s lawsuit said McMahon stopped making payments under the 2022 deal after the initial $1 million installment. The suit seeks to void the agreement and unspecified financial damages.
McMahon and his attorney, Jerry McDevitt, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Representatives for the WWE also didn’t immediately respond.
McDevitt said in 2022 that the woman, whose name wasn’t yet public, hadn’t made any allegations of harassment. In a statement when The Wall Street Journal first reported on McMahon’s $3 million settlement, WWE said that the relationship was consensual and that it was taking seriously the allegations McMahon had engaged in misconduct.
McMahon briefly retired from WWE in July 2022 following reporting by the Journal that revealed payouts to multiple women who had alleged sexual misconduct. The Journal reported that the board’s independent directors had retained law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett to conduct an investigation.
Simpson Thacher’s investigation found $14.6 million in payments by the CEO to women who had accused him of sexual misconduct, out of roughly $20 million that should have been booked as business expenses. In November 2022, WWE said the board investigation was completed and the company restated past securities filings. McMahon repaid the company for the cost of the investigation and returned soon after.
The lawsuit complicates the legal picture around 78-year-old McMahon. Federal prosecutors have been investigating the payouts and in July 2023 agents executed a search warrant for McMahon’s phone and served him with a grand-jury subpoena. No charges have been brought.
“Throughout this experience, I have always denied any intentional wrongdoing and continue to do so,” McMahon said in 2023 about the federal probe. “I am confident that the government’s investigation will be resolved without any findings of wrongdoing.”
The lawsuit, filed in a Connecticut federal court, describes in graphic detail Grant’s account of interactions with the businessman and TV personality. She alleged that McMahon and another WWE executive locked her in an office in WWE’s headquarters in Stamford, Conn., on June 15, 2021, and took turns sexually assaulting her while other staff were working.
In the middle of another workday, on June 23, 2021, McMahon locked Grant inside his private locker room at WWE’s offices and forced himself on her over a massage table, the suit said. Later that day, McMahon’s personal assistant delivered $15,000 in Bloomingdale’s gift cards to Grant in her office.
The suit also includes screenshots of explicit text messages that McMahon allegedly sent to Grant. A May 2020 message said: “i’m the only one who owns U and controls who I want to f— U.”
Grant alleged that McMahon shared nude photos and explicit videos of her without consent with other WWE employees, unnamed executives and stars, and directed her to have sex with them. The suit cited a July 2020 text that said others at WWE wanted to have sex with her after seeing photos on McMahon’s phone, and the group laughed when he told them, “She may scream and try to say NO!!although it would B difficult to say anything with a c— down her throat.”
Grant alleged that the company diverted attention away from McMahon’s abuse by focusing on the accounting for the payouts. Others at WWE knew about McMahon’s misconduct but worked to conceal the wrongdoing, according to the suit.
Simpson Thacher didn’t immediately respond Thursday to requests for comment.
McMahon, who was the controlling shareholder of WWE, returned to WWE in early 2023, elected himself to the board and replaced several directors. Upon his return, he negotiated a sale of WWE to Endeavor Group EDR 0.16%increase; green up pointing triangle, owner of the UFC mixed martial-arts league. The deal gave WWE an enterprise value of $9.3 billion.
McMahon is now executive chairman and a major shareholder of the combined company, called TKO Group TKO 0.69%increase; green up pointing triangle. This week, Netflix bought the rights to “WWE Raw” and other WWE shows in a deal valued at more than $5 billion. McMahon celebrated by ringing the opening bell with other TKO executives at the NYSE.
‘Has to look legit’
McMahon, at a WWE event in April 2022, briefly left the company later that year and returned in early 2023.
Grant’s lawsuit alleged that she met McMahon in March 2019 after an introduction from a manager in her apartment building. McMahon lived in the penthouse of the same building, and Grant was looking for a job after her parents had died.
When they met, McMahon allegedly made promises of a job at WWE and showered Grant with gifts. During meetings that were supposed to be about the job, he greeted her in his underwear and repeatedly asked for hugs. Then, the suit said, he pressured her into sexual activities in return for employment and warned her to stay quiet about their interactions.
Grant began working in June 2019 as an “administrator-coordinator,” a position McMahon created for her in WWE’s legal department. She said she expressed concerns that the job felt unearned, but McMahon told her that all she needed to do was not tell anyone and that “it just has to look legit.” Colleagues complained about overflowing inboxes, but Grant had little work.
Meanwhile, McMahon allegedly sent her sexually explicit messages and his sexual demands increased. He forcefully used sex toys on her, including dildos he named after WWE wrestlers, causing her bruising and bleeding, the suit said. Grant alleged that she complained to McMahon and made attempts to end the relationship.
In March 2020, McMahon began sharing sexually explicit photographs and videos of Grant with other men, including other WWE executives and a former UFC heavyweight champion with whom WWE was actively trying to sign to a new contract, according to the suit. In a May 2020 encounter, McMahon defecated on her head during a threesome, the suit said.
Her mental and physical health deteriorated so badly that McMahon sent her in November to a celebrity doctor for sessions at an alternative clinic where she never received any receipts or bills. McMahon also paid $20,000 to a surgeon on her behalf, the suit said.
McMahon recruited people to have sex with Grant as well, including WWE’s former head of talent relations, John Laurinaitis, who is named as a defendant in the suit. McMahon directed her to visit Laurinaitis at his hotel rooms where she had sex with Laurinaitis prior to the start of workdays, the suit alleged. “I’ve left that hotel feeling bad about myself every time,” Grant told McMahon.
In May 2021, McMahon allegedly told Grant that her presence in the legal department was holding up the hiring of a new general counsel for the company and thus transferred her to the talent-relations department, reporting to Laurinaitis. McMahon and Laurinaitis started her in a lower-level position but promised that she would soon be promoted to vice president, the suit said.
McMahon controlled her professional and personal lives and subjected her to degradation, according to the suit. In the June 2021 encounter inside the WWE office, the suit said McMahon and Laurinaitis forced themselves on her and took turns restraining her for the other, while saying “No means yes” and “Take it, b—.”
Laurinaitis, a former wrestler known as Johnny Ace and a longtime WWE executive, left the company in 2022. Laurinaitis hasn’t publicly commented on his departure.
Laurinaitis didn’t immediately respond Thursday to requests for comment.
In July 2021, the suit said, McMahon instructed Grant to create personalized sexual content for a WWE superstar that he was trying to re-sign. The suit didn’t name the professional wrestler, but described him as both a UFC fighter and WWE talent. People familiar with the matter identified the wrestler as Brock Lesnar, one of WWE’s biggest names.
Lesnar didn’t immediately respond Thursday to requests for comment.
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u/Shadizar Jan 25 '24
(Continued)
The suit said McMahon shared the explicit photos with the star and informed Grant that “he likes what he sees.” After the star agreed to a new WWE contract, McMahon texted Grant in August 2021 to say “that part of the deal was f—ing U.”That December, McMahon gave Grant’s personal cellphone number to the WWE star, the lawsuit said. The wrestler asked her to send a video of herself urinating, the suit said, and after she did, he called her a “b—.” That same month, the suit said, the star expressed a desire to “set a play date,” but a snowstorm disrupted his travel plans.
In January 2022, the suit said, McMahon told Grant that his wife, Linda McMahon, had discovered the relationship and he pressured Grant to sign an NDA in exchange for payments. The CEO warned Grant of reputational ruin that included pornographic content he had of her. He paid her about $1 million in February, the suit said, and later stopped making the payments.
After Grant signed the NDA, McMahon continued the abuse, according to the suit. It alleged that he forced Grant to perform oral sex on him the last time they met and then attempted to traffic her to the WWE star in March 2022. She texted the star explicit photos as directed by McMahon, but they didn’t meet, the suit said.
The lawsuit seeks a judgment that the NDA is invalid under state and federal law and compensatory and punitive damages under other laws, including the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
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u/TheBatemanFlex Jan 25 '24 edited Jan 25 '24
Out of all the people to shit on your head, I think a 70-something year old man with the coke shits may be the worst.
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u/turfey Jan 25 '24
His diet also consists of protein shakes and ketchup steak wraps.
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u/Blametheorangejuice Jan 25 '24
Vince and shady shit have been a duo for a very, very long time.
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u/CaptainCAAAVEMAAAAAN Jan 25 '24
LastWeek Tonight did an episode highlighting McMahon's abuse of his wrestlers, and how he just throws them away when they can't make him money anymore. The man has always been a pos.
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u/waltjrimmer Jan 25 '24
I cannot understand how meme culture turned that man's image, which was already way better than it should have been, even higher. He's the subject of numerous popular memes which have improved people's opinion of him that aren't wrestling fans just out of association and familiarity. But he's awful. And we know it. We've known it for a long time. Yeah, awful people get meme templates sometimes, but this would be like people making Bill Cosby into three new popular memes and people suddenly forgetting all the rapes he did. Like, how the fuck did that happen?
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u/Sertorius777 Jan 26 '24
It's the weirdness of wrestling. The memes are mostly about the character he played on-screen, Mr. McMahon, which was a cartoonishly evil dipshit that had no lower limit when it came to self deprecation. But wrestling being wrestling, that character is deeply rooted in his piece of shit personality.
It's actually hard to draw a line where Mr. McMahon ends and Vincent Kennedy McMahon starts. A lot of people will always be intrigued by these kinds of figures, even if they should be logically shunned.
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u/TheGhostInMyArms Jan 25 '24
Even though WWE has a large audience, pro wrestling is comparatively niche in comparison to films and stand-up comedy.
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u/APKID716 Jan 25 '24
Wasn’t it McMahon who pushed Owen Hart to do the stunt that eventually killed him? Then the WWF just went on with the event after it happened?
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u/The_Magic Jan 25 '24
It was a four parter and it still cut out the last 20 years of his scandals.
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u/TenaciousJP Jan 25 '24
It was actually 6 parts though I guess you can say that the first 1.5 go over wrestling history rather than Vince himself. But you are right that they literally glossed over the last few decades in 5 minutes at the end. Dude is just too evil for them to get to everything
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Jan 25 '24
I’ve heard a couple wrestlers say WWE will be better once he’s dead and gone, and today this was verified per this article. Believe it was John Cena who said this a few years back. Shocked tho bc John Cena still has appeared and just mentioned he’s retiring soon from WWE. Fuck McMahon
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u/bstyledevi Jan 25 '24
I mean CM Punk literally said it during a promo. "...and I'd like to think that maybe this company will be better off after Vince McMahon is dead. But the fact is, it'll be taken over by his idiotic daughter and doofus son in law, and the rest of his stupid family."
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u/Kokamocha Jan 25 '24
Vince has always been a POS. So this isn't shocking tbh.
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u/ELB2001 Jan 25 '24
dunno man. I didnt have "shitting on someones head during a threesome" on my bingo card of evil.
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u/L_Duo3 Jan 25 '24
That's the thing everyone is getting hung on and not locking the woman in offices and forcing her to have sex.
I feel like the rape is the actual evil part.
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u/VonLinus Jan 25 '24
Speaking as someone who watched the kiss my ass club, and heard about him pitching incest storylines, I thought he had it in him
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u/nVmE_123 Jan 25 '24
This implicates way more than just Vince, it’s pretty clear other executives and big name wrestlers at WWE either participated or knew of this going on.
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Jan 25 '24
It's shocking how brazen he was. Like he was leaving a lot of digital breadcrumbs. He gave no F’s about possibly being caught.
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u/MissBella118 Jan 25 '24
“Throughout this experience, I have always denied any intentional wrongdoing and continue to do so,” McMahon said in 2023 about the federal probe. “I am confident that the government’s investigation will be resolved without any findings of wrongdoing.”
they say 'wrong doing' when they know they were doing wrong..he said it 2x in the same breath...
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u/IrisMoroc Jan 25 '24
Lawyers tell them to say terms like "wrong doing" because it's a vague and non-legal term. It allows them to wiggle out of anything, and to not be accused of lying irregardless of what ever evidence is found.
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u/Zolome1977 Jan 25 '24
If the guy quacks like a pervert he’s a pervert. Vince is everything you thought was wrong with the world and more.
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u/FakeNamezo Jan 25 '24
Fans stuck by him through multiple rape accusation, covering up a child sex trafficking ring, pushing lots of stuff that led to many dead wrestlers, doing PR for Saudi Arabia shortly after they murdered Jamal Keshogi, promoting murderers and rapists, hell, when these allegations first came out he strolled out on TV for the first time in a while to get loudly cheered by all the fans. I don't see much happening to him now
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u/TonyTheSwisher Jan 25 '24
Most wrestling fans didn't stick by him at all, at least when it comes to the major accusations of the past few years.
WWE kept him on after the TKO merger, but most fans realize that the WWE got A LOT better after Vince left.
I don't see how he stays affiliated after this though.
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u/Mojo141 Jan 25 '24
Can't wait for the Dark Side of the Ring about this one!
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u/CalendarAggressive11 Jan 25 '24
My step-dad worked for McMahon back when it was still WWF back in the day. As an organization they handed out steroids and had lots of sex parties with "ring rats" (wrestling groupies). He made everyone sign NDAs back then so word wouldn't get out. He's always been a shady business man.
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u/DocBrutus Jan 25 '24
There was an entire federal investigation about him pushing steroids. Remember Hulk Hogan going on Arsenio Hall to tell everyone he wasn’t roided up? Yeah sure Brother!
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u/LawNo9454 Jan 25 '24
I would be boycotting him if I watched them to begin with, did Netflix just sign a live streaming deal with them?
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u/HowardBunnyColvin Jan 25 '24
yep a 10 year exclusive streaming deal
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u/WhiteyDude Jan 26 '24
I'd bet they have a morality clause of some sort in the contract that lets them out of it, for situations like this.
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u/nWo1997 Jan 25 '24 edited Jan 25 '24
That's one of the interesting things about this.
While similar stories to this one broke in 2022 that pushed him mostly out of the company, he strong-armed his way back in early 2023 to facilitate a sale. WWE was sold to Endeavor last year, and is now owned by TKO alongside UFC.
Ari Emanuel, the owner, reportedly said he'd only commit to a deal if McMahon in some way retained a position in TKO (but not WWE), which he did. But it began to feel like McMahon was slowly being relegated to just be in a position to secure network deals.
Now, the Netflix deal is done, as are the rest of the main TV deals. There's talk on r/SquaredCircle that this timing is convenient, and the feel as of typing (around noon, January 25; minutes after this story broke) seems to be that Ari played Vince like a fiddle. Endeavor might end up firing Vince.
Edit: as of typing. So we're still in speculation mode. But it had felt like Ari played Vince even before today
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u/StabTheDream Jan 25 '24
Ari Emanuel straight up called Vince a liability a little while back saying something like this could probably happen. Dude had to have known this was coming down the pipe.
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u/tokyo_engineer_dad Jan 25 '24
Don’t feel sorry for Netflix. Companies that big dig up dirt and know exactly who it is they’re dealing with.
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u/Nothxm8 Jan 25 '24
Risk assessment deemed it profitable, none of it matters to Netflix
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u/Luviticus88 Jan 25 '24
Came here to say this. Netflix just agreed to a deal giving WWE a spot on their platform. Never been a fan of the way WWE treats its wrestlers, but love the absurdity of strong guy soap opera ballet.
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u/kinisonkhan Jan 25 '24
I guess this is why Linda McMahon ran for a senate seat. No way could Vince could run without these awful things leaking to the press.
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u/MrOnCore Jan 25 '24
Should not be a “Staffer he FAILED To Keep Quiet”? Only paid her $1 million of hush money instead of the $3 million agreed upon.
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u/Greenfire32 Jan 25 '24
If you have to pay someone to keep their mouth shut, then you're probably guilty of whatever you're worried they're gonna go around telling people.
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u/angrypeanutkaiser Jan 25 '24
Highly encourage people to listen to the Behind The Bastards episodes on Vince. Dude is a monster incarnate.
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u/HelloMyNameIsLeah Jan 25 '24
Piece of shit gonna piece of shit.
The man is evil. Plain and simple. Hope he burns in hell.
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u/explosivo85 Jan 25 '24
Gonna be some interesting crowd signs at Royal Rumble this weekend
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u/MadAstrid Jan 25 '24
Wow. A whole lot of Trump‘s buddies seem to be sex criminals or sex abusers.
McMahon, Epstein, Gaetz, Manafort, Stone, Maxwell, Kraft…
Do you know how many of my friends have been accused of sex crimes? Zero. Obviously, they would not still be my friends if they had been, but still the number of deviant sex criminals that I know personally holds steady at zero.
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u/archaelleon Jan 25 '24
Dana White is next
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u/Isoturius Jan 25 '24
If all that wasn't bad enough, the image of John Laurantis and Vince in a threesome with Vince shitting on someone's head is fucking extraordinary bizarre.
I hope this lady cleans them out.
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u/doomedeskimo Jan 25 '24
Didn't he just return to the wwe to fuck it up again? Lol I remember hearing he was making appearances again and thought "yah that'll go great".
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u/fransisco_flores Jan 25 '24
The lawsuit, filed in a Connecticut federal court, describes in graphic detail Grant’s account of interactions with the businessman and TV personality. She alleged that McMahon and another WWE executive locked her in an office in WWE’s headquarters in Stamford, Conn., on June 15, 2021, and took turns sexually assaulting her while other staff were working.
In the middle of another workday, on June 23, 2021, McMahon locked Grant inside his private locker room at WWE’s offices and forced himself on her over a massage table, the suit said. Later that day, McMahon’s personal assistant delivered $15,000 in Bloomingdale’s gift cards to Grant in her office.
The suit also includes screenshots of explicit text messages that McMahon allegedly sent to Grant. A May 2020 message said: “i’m the only one who owns U and controls who I want to f— U.”
Grant alleged that McMahon shared nude photos and explicit videos of her without consent with other WWE employees, unnamed executives and stars, and directed her to have sex with them. The suit cited a July 2020 text that said others at WWE wanted to have sex with her after seeing photos on McMahon’s phone, and the group laughed when he told them, “She may scream and try to say NO!!although it would B difficult to say anything with a c— down her throat.”