Vince McMahon, WWE, and John Laurinaitis have been sued by former WWE employee Janel Grant for sex trafficking in a complaint that accuses McMahon of numerous instances of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, in graphic detail. Among the allegations filed with the U.S. federal court in Connecticut on Thursday, Grant describes being sexually assaulted by McMahon and Laurinaitis.
Through a spokesperson, McMahon responded Thursday, saying, “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.”
A source close to Grant told Wrestlenomics on Friday that she’s relieved to have the information in the lawsuit become public and grateful for the support she’s received, though she is a broken person from her interactions with McMahon.
While no longer the controlling owner of WWE since the TKO merger, McMahon serves as TKO’s Executive Chairman.
TKO stated on Thursday evening: “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.”
Grant says WWE, as a company, did nothing to stop McMahon
Grant’s lawsuit accuses WWE of being complicit in McMahon’s abuse, claiming multiple high-ranking executives were aware of the situation and didn’t stop him.
“WWE Corporate Officer No. 1”, anonymized in the complaint, is said to be “a high-ranking employee and Board member during Ms. Grant’s employment with WWE,” which spanned from May 2019 to January 2022. Grant says she introduced herself to Corporate Officer No. 1 in March 2021 and this person “knew exactly who she was” despite the two working in separate buildings until a month prior. Perhaps narrowing the possibilities of this executive’s identity further, Grant mentions this person had an office on the 4th floor of WWE’s headquarters.
Other than Vince McMahon, who is explicitly identified throughout the lawsuit, executive members of WWE’s board between 2019 and 2022 include Nick Khan, Paul Levesque, Frank Riddick, and Stephanie McMahon, based on WWE’s disclosures. George Barrios and Michelle Wilson were also executive board members until their January 2020 termination from WWE, so they were not working for the company in March 2021, the time at which Grant says Corporate Officer No. 1 was working at WWE.
In addition to WWE Corporate Officer No. 1, Grant claims other executives (referred to as WWE Corporate Officer No. 2, 3, and 4) were also aware of McMahon sexually exploiting her.
WWE Corporate Officer No. 3 is also said in the complaint to have been “a high-ranking employee and/or Board member” while Grant was employed at the company.
Grant alleges she was never interviewed as part of WWE’s Special Committee Investigation, despite expressing she was willing to cooperate.
The investigation into McMahon and Laurinaitis’s conduct and the company’s culture was initiated in June 2022 after The Wall Street Journal broke news of an NDA payment scandal involving McMahon and a former WWE paralegal, anonymous at the time, who was Grant. Multiple other NDAs to pay for women’s silence about additional cases of alleged sexual misconduct perpetrated by McMahon were disclosed following the investigation.
Can Vince McMahon be removed from TKO?
Installing McMahon as Executive Chairman was part of the merger agreement negotiated by WWE and Endeavor last year, which combined WWE and UFC into TKO.
It’s unclear if TKO, which is controlled by Endeavor, can unilaterally force McMahon out of his role as Executive Chairman. If the parent of WWE and UFC want him gone, it may need to convince him to resign.
According to TKO’s Certificate of Incorporation, filed last year with the SEC, McMahon may have rights to that position until he resigns, dies, or becomes incapacitated.
“7.2 Executive Chair. Notwithstanding Section 7.1(b), Vincent K. McMahon shall serve as the Executive Chair of the Board (the “Executive Chair”) until the earliest of his death, resignation or Incapacitation. Any vacancy of the Executive Chair (which, if Mr. McMahon is the initial Executive Chair, shall initially only occur upon the death, resignation or Incapacity of Mr. McMahon) shall be filled by the Board by the affirmative vote of a majority of the Directors.”
I discussed these corporate governance aspects with a person who has served on boards of directors and I believe amending the above-excerpted section requires, a) a majority vote from TKO shareholders to amend the company’s Governance Agreement, and b) the signature of all parties, which includes McMahon.
While Endeavor has the majority of the votes of TKO, getting McMahon to agree to any amendment that makes it easier to remove him may be an obstacle.
Possibly a path of less resistance would be leveraging an agreement with McMahon that gets him to resign, which could include selling his shares to another party. McMahon currently holds more than 20 million TKO shares which, at today’s share price of about $87, have a market value of more than $1.7 billion.
Brandon Thurston has written about wrestling business since 2015. He’s also worked as an independent wrestler and trainer.
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