As WWE prepares for WrestleMania, its biggest show of the year, the company and its former leader, Vince McMahon, are still dealing with scandal, highlighted by a lawsuit in January alleging sex trafficking, physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault and negligence.
McMahon is no longer with the company he helped found and then ran for more than four decades. This will be the first WrestleMania without him running the show.
To catch up, here is a rundown of the situation and how it got here.
Vince McMahon’s ownership
After spending years in the company, McMahon bought the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1982 from his father, Vincent J., (it was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2002) and grew it from a New York regional territory into a global force. The younger McMahon created the first WrestleMania in 1985, turned the WWF into a public company in 1999 and led the promotion until 2023.
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McMahon last year helped facilitate the sale of a controlling share to Endeavor, which merged WWE with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) into TKO Group. McMahon was chairman of the TKO board, with Hollywood mogul Ari Emanuel as the CEO and executive chair, and media executive Mark Shapiro as president and COO.
Why are McMahon and the WWE being sued?
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2022 that the WWE board had been alerted to a hush-money payment from McMahon to a woman to cover up an alleged affair. A board probe expanded to discover at least $12 million in payments to at least four women, according to the media outlet. McMahon stepped down as CEO and chairman in June 2022 and retired the next month, but he remained a controlling shareholder. He returned to the company six months later for the sale.
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In January, a woman named Janel Grant filed a lawsuit against McMahon, former WWE executive John Laurinaitis and the WWE, alleging abuse, sex trafficking and more. Grant claims McMahon offered her a WWE job, which she alleges quickly became dependent on a sexual relationship with him, and Grant says she felt trapped for fear of repercussions. The relationship, which allegedly lasted from 2019 to January 2022, put her through sexual acts of “extreme cruelty and degradation,” including injury, the complaint details. The suit claims McMahon later involved others in their sexual acts — including Laurinaitis — and that McMahon shared photos, videos and details with other WWE employees. It also claims McMahon used Grant as an incentive for an unnamed WWE wrestler to re-sign with the company.
The lawsuit additionally claims that McMahon pressured Grant to sign a nondisclosure agreement in early 2022 and leave the company. She ultimately signed an NDA for $3 million and received a $1 million payment in February 2022 but claims in the lawsuit that she did not receive the remaining balance. The lawsuit also claims the original anonymous tip to the WWE board about the payments was about this relationship with Grant.
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McMahon denies the allegations, as a spokesperson for him called the lawsuit “replete with lies” and said via a statement he would defend himself against the accusations. He resigned from his positions with TKO Group one day after the suit was filed.
A lawyer for Laurinaitis also denied its allegations to Vice and also claimed Laurinaitis was a victim of McMahon.
How did TKO Group respond to the lawsuit?
Following the filing of the lawsuit, TKO Group said the matter predated its ownership and that McMahon had no day-to-day control over the company since the sale and merger. TKO Group also said via a spokesperson that it took the “horrific allegations very seriously.”
Is anyone else involved?
In March, Front Office Sports reported the names of four key figures in the lawsuit. The lawsuit does not allege they had knowledge of sexual violence, but it does claim that at least two of them (WWE president Nick Khan and WWE chief operating officer Brad Blum) were aware of a relationship between Grant and Vince McMahon. Referred to only as numbered “Corporate Officers” in the suit, they also include former executive and Vince’s daughter Stephanie McMahon and former general counsel Brian Nurse. Grant’s attorney confirmed those four names to The Athletic through a spokesperson.
The lawsuit also claims McMahon told Grant that Khan and Blum were the two people she should contact about the NDA in the future. WWE said in a statement that Khan and Blum did not have knowledge of the specific allegations from Grant until the lawsuit was filed.
What is the status of the lawsuit?
It remains ongoing, and nothing notable has occurred as of yet. Separate from the lawsuit, McMahon was served with a grand jury subpoena and federal search warrant in July 2023, the company disclosed last year, noting it presented risk for the company.
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The Wall Street Journal reported in February the subpoena requested McMahon turn over documents related to prior allegations of sexual misconduct made by current or former WWE employees, as well as communications between McMahon and alleged victims, including Grant. McMahon has denied wrongdoing on that front.
Per The Wall Street Journal, McMahon in 2023 also agreed to a settlement with Rita Chatterton, a former referee who accused him of rape in 1986.
What have people around WWE said about the situation?
WWE star Becky Lynch told The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch last week that she struggled to absorb what she called “horrendous allegations” against McMahon.
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WWE executive Paul “Triple H” Levesque, McMahon’s son-in-law, largely dodged questions about the lawsuit at a press conference following January’s Royal Rumble premium live event, saying, “I choose to focus on the positive. Yes, there’s a negative, but I want to focus on that and keep it to that.” Asked what WWE was doing to make sure people in power couldn’t exploit those below them, Levesque replied, “I’ll give you the most generalized answer I can: everything possible. That is a very important thing to us. It’s as simple as everything possible.”
WWE star Cody Rhodes said at the Royal Rumble that it was a “dark cloud” over the company but added that TKO Group “clearly took it very seriously” and “acted immediately.” In her upcoming memoir, former UFC fighter and WWE wrestler Ronda Rousey takes aim at WWE and McMahon, writing, “It’s hard sometimes to know where the evil, unethical, slimeball character of Vince McMahon played out for the cameras ends and the actual questionably ethical, many times sued and multiple times accused of sexual misconduct Vince McMahon begins. That blurred line between character and reality is a recurring theme within the WWE Universe.”
(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
