Jan 26, 2024
Just days after the WWE struck a landmark $5 billion media rights deal with Netflix, a new lawsuit accuses the wrestling promotion’s founder, Vince McMahon, of sexual assault and sex trafficking.
McMahon is now the executive chairman of TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of WWE and UFC, which came together last year as part of a $21 billion merger. But the lawsuit, filed by a former female WWE employee and first reported by the Wall Street Journal, covers a time period from 2019 to 2022. McMahon stepped down as CEO of WWE in June 2022 when WWE announced it was investigating a reported $3 million settlement McMahon is alleged to have paid to an outgoing employee with whom he was said to have had an affair.
In the new lawsuit, which can be viewed here, Janel Grant, the former employee, claims to have been “the victim of physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault and trafficking at WWE.” Grant says that McMahon and former WWE head of talent relations John Laurinaitis forced themselves upon her, and that McMahon attempted to get Grant to have sex with a wrestler WWE was trying to sign.
Source: Front Office Sports