Vincent K. McMahon is aprofessional wrestling promoter who bought his fatherVincent J. McMahon's promotion—then called theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF)—in 1982. Under McMahon's ownership, WWF underwent an aggressive national expansion during the1980s professional wrestling boom, which effectively made the WWF the leading professional wrestling promotion in the United States and later the world.[1] WWF was later renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment, and later simply referred to as WWE. In June 2022, WWE's board of directors started investigating a $3 millionhush money payment, and the board found that McMahon had made $12 million in payments to four women, two of whom allegedsexual misconduct against McMahon.[2][3] This was not the first time McMahon had been publicly accused of sexual misconduct. In 1992, former WWF refereeRita Chatterton alleged McMahon raped her in 1986;[4] and in 2006 a tanning salon employee inBoca Raton, Florida, alleged that McMahon had sexually harassed and groped her.[5]
As a result of the investigation, McMahon retired in July 2022 as CEO of WWE but still remained its largest shareholder. McMahon was succeeded as CEO by his daughterStephanie McMahon and company presidentNick Khan.[6] In November 2022, WWE's internal investigation into the hush money payments was completed; the company did not publicly disclose its results.[7] In January 2023, McMahon exited retirement and returned as executive chairman of WWE amid rumours that the company would be sold; McMahon's public statement also referred to WWE's ongoing negotiations regarding its media rights.[8] In September 2023, WWE officially merged withmixed martial arts promotionUltimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to createTKO Group Holdings, of which McMahon was appointed executive chairman.[9]
On January 25, 2024, former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a lawsuit in theU.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut against WWE, McMahon, and former WWE head of talent relationsJohn Laurinaitis alleging that McMahon had sexually assaulted and trafficked her, and sought to have anon-disclosure agreement (NDA) relating to the conduct voided, both under the auspices of theSpeak Out Act, which makes such NDAs illegal and unenforceable, and nullified by McMahon's refusal to follow the contracted obligations within the NDA.[10][11]
Grant, a formerparalegal who lived in the same apartment block as McMahon, was offered employment with WWE in 2019 after the death of her parents.[10] During the course of her employment, Grant alleged that McMahon recruited individuals, most notably Laurinaitis, for the purpose of sexual relations with her.[10] Of the alleged conduct, Grant made several noteworthy allegations, including:
In May 2020, Grant, McMahon, and a personal friend of McMahon engaged in athreesome, and at one point McMahon allegedly defecated upon Grant. McMahon temporarily retired to the restroom to clean himself, at which point the threesome continued for an hour and a half with Grant still covered in McMahon's feces.[10]
In June 2021, Laurinaitis and McMahon "cornered her and pulled her in between them, forcibly touched her, before ultimately putting her on top of a table in between them", and that "she begged them to stop, but they forced themselves on her, each taking turns restraining her for the other".[10]
During the course of her employment, McMahon shared sexually explicit media with a "world-famous athlete" and formerUFC Heavyweight Champion,[10] who was identified byThe Wall Street Journal asBrock Lesnar,[12] to entice him to sign a new WWE contract, which the talent eventually signed.[10]
Grant alleged that the misconduct continued until 2022, at which point McMahon's wifeLinda, a former WWE executive and politician, discovered the affair and threatened to divorce him. After several months of negotiations, WWE, McMahon, and Grant signed an NDA in which Grant would be awarded $3 million for her silence; after signing the contract, Grant alleged that McMahon attempted to assault her again. Grant also alleged that key figures in WWE were fully aware of the conduct, and actively sought to conceal McMahon's wrongdoing.[10]
Grant's lawsuit was filed during a prolific week for WWE. Just two days prior, WWE had closed a 10-year deal withNetflix worth $5 billion in which the domestic media rights to its flagship television showWWE Raw and the international media rights to its wider content library would be provided to the streaming service;[13] on the same day, former WWE wrestlerDwayne "The Rock" Johnson was appointed to the TKO board.[14] Upon the filing of the lawsuit, the TKO board issued a statement that whilst the allegation predated their control of WWE, they "took the allegations very seriously",[15] while McMahon denied the allegations and vowed to "vigorously defend himself".[16]
On January 26, 2024, snack food brandSlim Jim—a longtime sponsor of WWE and sponsor of the2024 Royal Rumble premium live event that was due to take part on January 27—announced that it was withdrawing its sponsorship of the event. That evening, TKO executivesAri Emanuel andMark Shapiro met with McMahon to convince him to resign. At8:30 pm (EST) that evening, McMahon publicly announced his resignation as TKO executive chairman. McMahon’s profile on WWE.com was also removed from the Superstars page.[17] Slim Jim announced the next day that it was resuming its sponsorship of the Royal Rumble.[18]
On February 1, co-defendant John Laurinaitis' lawyer Edward Brennan toldVice News that Laurinaitis was also a victim of McMahon'scoercive control, and said that Laurinaitis would defend himself on that basis.[23] On February 7, Laurinaitis alleged that WWE's executives were fully aware of allegations that former WWE wrestlerAshley Massaro was raped by someone posing as a U.S. military doctor during a WWE tour ofKuwait, which contradicted earlier statements by WWE that they were unaware of them; he denied that the company had engaged in a cover up.[24] Two days later, Vice published a previously unseen statement by Massaro, who accused McMahon of preying upon other female wrestlers.[25] On March 11, Front Office Sports published an article that revealed the identities of four unnamed corporate figures referenced in the lawsuit, which Grant's attorneyAnn Callis confirmed was correct:[26]
Corporate Officers No. 1 and No. 2, who were described in the lawsuit as McMahon's "fixers", were identified as WWE presidentNick Khan and WWE COO Brad Blum;[26]
Corporate Officer No. 3, who was "mentioned once [in the lawsuit] in an ambiguous context", was identified as former WWE CEO, and Vince's daughter, Stephanie McMahon;[26]
Corporate Officer No. 4, who was alleged to have treated Grant with hostility within WWE's legal department, was identified as WWE's former general counsel Brian Nurse.[26]
On April 1, theNew York Post published a purported "love letter" from Grant to McMahon that was dated to December 24, 2021, which was taken from Grant's work laptop during the course of the internal investigation. Callis alleged that the love letter was written under duress, whereas McMahon's attorney Jessica Taub Rosenberg said that the letter was proof that Grant was not coerced into writing it or that she was assaulted by McMahon.[27]
On April 23, McMahon's lawyers filed a motion to compelarbitration in the case under the terms of the NDA, and stated that McMahon withheld payments as he believed that Grant had broken the terms of the agreement.[28] A day later, Grant's attorneys filed a motion to strike McMahon's motion, alleging that he had used the motion and his preliminary statement to further intimidate Grant.[29] On May 30, Grant agreed to "stay her case" against McMahon for six months at the request of theU.S. Department of Justice, which was launching a criminal investigation into the allegations.[30] On December 24, both McMahon and the WWE filed motions seeking to transition the lawsuit toarbitration.[31][32]
On January 10, 2025, theU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that McMahon had agreed to pay a $400,000 fine to the SEC and to reimburse$1.3 million to WWE in exchange for charges offalse accounting being dropped. In the agreement, the SEC stated that they found McMahon had failed to disclose two non-disclosure agreements a 2019 agreement with an unidentified woman for$7.5 million and a 2022 agreement, presumably with Grant, for$3 million—which caused discrepancies in WWE's financial filings that covered those years. Despite McMahon alleging that the SEC fine had closed the case, Callis confirmed that both the criminal investigation and civil lawsuit were still ongoing.[33]
On January 31, Grant filed an amended complaint that expanded on her grievances against McMahon and WWE. Many individuals mentioned in the original complaint and later identified by third-party sources—including Khan, Lesnar, and celebrity doctorCarlon Colker, who was accused of supplying Grant with unidentified medication at McMahon's request—were de-anonymised and explicitly named. Grant also made further allegations:[34]
In September 2020, McMahon directed Grant to create customised pornographic content for longtime WWE producerMichael Hayes and his crew.[34]
After Grant was transferred from the legal department to talent relations, Khan and Blum were directly involved in the construction of new office space that included an internal connection between Grant's office and Laurinaitis's, which also shared a wall with the office of a former headline wrestler, then-talent relations executive, and future headbooker, namelyPaul "Triple H" Levesque.[34]
McMahon attempted to arrange multiple sexual encounters between Lesnar and Grant between July 2021 and January 2022, with the encounters not happening only due to external circumstances.[34]
At one point, McMahon viewed pornographic content of Grant during a production meeting that was filmed for, and aired in, the 2024Netflix documentaryMr. McMahon.[34]
Grant ultimately signed the NDA under intense pressure from McMahon so that he could avoid scrutiny of the relationship by the WWE board and its auditors, which were due to meet in the following days.[34]
On May 28, Laurinaitis settled with Grant and agreed to provide evidence in her favor in future proceedings.[35] In July, retired UFC fighterDaniel Cormier claimed that Lesnar remained on a TKO-maintained "ban list" that precluded him from appearing on UFC or WWE programming.[36] Despite Cormier's claims and the lawsuit still being active, Lesnar would make his return to WWE at their2025 SummerSlam event in August at the end of aWWE Championship match betweenJohn Cena andCody Rhodes.[37] After the event, Grant's legal team released a statement claiming that WWE had failed to hold anybody accountable for a supposed culture of abuse under McMahon and that any "attempt to sweep misconduct under the rug" would backfire.[38]
^Weprin, Alex (February 7, 2024)."How Vince McMahon Got TKO'd". The Hollywood Reporter.Archived from the original on April 24, 2024. RetrievedApril 24, 2024.
