More on Sex Trafficking Lawsuit Against Vince McMahon & His Resignation – Internal Reaction, Slim Jim Resumes WWE Sponsor, Grant’s Lawyer & Former WWE Board Member Responds

Jan 27, 2024

More on Vince McMahon’s Sex Trafficking Allegations & Resignation from TKO & WWE

As noted before, a lawsuit was filed this past Thursday by former WWE employee Janel Grant against TKO Group Executive Chairman Vince McMahon accusing McMahon of committing sex trafficking and sexual abuse towards Grant during her time in the company. McMahon announced on Friday evening that he was officially resigning from TKO Group and WWE and still denied the allegations against him.

Following the release of the lawsuit, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials had informed their talent to not talk about anything other than the Royal Rumble or storyline-related things when contacted for interviews for this media week.

In regards to the internal reaction within WWE over McMahon’s resignation announcement, PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that it was of general happiness and relief. This reaction reportedly was over the belief that many had within WWE that McMahon deserved the consequences for the allegations made against him in the lawsuit. Johnson reported that while several within WWE had anticipated that McMahon would make a resignation announcement, they did not expect it to have been made this quickly. One source spoken to described McMahon as “a black cloud hanging over everything, even though he wasn’t involved in anything.” Johnson reported that McMahon’s presence since Endeavor purchased the company was seen more of a ceremonial role, especially after WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque took over creative control.

In a separate report, Mike Johnson reported that McMahon’s profile has been removed from TKO Group’s Board of Directors on their website. McMahon’s profile on WWE’s official website reportedly was also removed outright and not shifted over to their Alumni page. Johnson reported that the searches for McMahon’s name on WWE’s website now results in very little returns back.

Besides the removal of McMahon’s profile on TKO and WWE’s websites, Mike Johnson also reported that WWE pulled all of their merchandise for McMahon both from their on-site store for this week’s Royal Rumble 2024 event in St. Petersburg, Florida and WWEShop online store.

Following McMahon’s resignation announcement, Slim Jim announced that they have officially resumed their sponsorship of WWE’s Royal Rumble 2024 event. In an official statement to Post Wrestling’s John Pollock, the company stated “After the departure of Vince McMahon, and discussions with WWE TKO senior leadership, Slim Jim has decided to re-enter the Royal Rumble.” The company had previous stated that they were pausing all of their sponsorships with WWE due to the “disturbing allegations” against McMahon.

Janel Grant’s Lawyer Responds to Allegations Against Vince McMahon & Grant “Felt Caged & Imprisoned” by McMahon

In a recent episode of the Law & Crime podcast, Janel Grant’s lawyer Ann Callis gave her thoughts about the allegations against McMahon in the lawsuit that was filed by her client.

“There is a thing called trauma bonding that people who haven’t studied it, I have just read articles; I’m not a psychiatrist or psychologist, but an attorney. She literally felt caged and imprisoned by Vince McMahon. The escalation of the degrading things that happened to her, it’s important for it to come out. These are facts. These are allegations that we hope to be prove to be true. They are true.
She wants her life back. She wants ownership of her story. She wants to help other victims. This is relatively close in time, 2019 when this unfolded, 2020, and her hope is to help other victims if there are other victims, to come forward because she had the courage and presence of mind to finally get this done and come forward.
What happened to her, and what was alleged, left her physically and mentally absolutely destroyed. She is trying to recover and she believes this is the first step. Filing this lawsuit took such tremendous courage from her. She was in an extremely vulnerable position when she first encountered Vince McMahon. Her parents had passed, she was the primary caregiver for her parents. Besides being an inordinately playing field between Vince McMahon and Janela, she still tried to conduct herself, tried to be the best possible employee for the WWE that she could be under the most devastating and sexually depraved circumstances.”

Callis also gave her thoughts about if McMahon’s actions towards Grant was something that was a known thing by others within WWE and if it was an open secret in the company.

“It is disturbing. What happened to her is disturbing. I believe it was in Laurinaitis’ office, that they locked. She was sexually assaulted, we are claiming, the WWE headquarters, under the nose of the executives and the employees.
It is horrifying. Janel was in an atmosphere of fear. Perhaps some of the employees, or many of the employees, were in an atmosphere of fear. That permeated her being and I think it permeated the entire headquarters.
Whether they worked in the company or not, yes, the belief is there are other victims out there, just the way the grooming of Janel went on, it indicates that. There are a lot of indicators that there may be, and probably are, other victims out there. One of Janel’s hopes is that by coming forward she will give the courage of other victims to come forward too.”

Callis also gave her thoughts about if Grant had felt preyed upon and targeted by McMahon.

“She was targetted and preyed upon. As I mentioned before, she was in a very vulnerable position and Vince McMahon took advantage of that and then took it a million steps further in the sexual torture, the degradation, the push-pull of trauma bonding all occurred to her. She still, to this day, trying to process what happened to her. She literally could not get out of bed. She wasn’t having any personal grooming. She’s not really eating. It’s really taken a toll besides the physical injuries she’s suffered. It’s going to be a long process. Hopefully, yesterday, by filing this suit, is her first step in the healing process.”

Callis also read a statement given to her by Grant.

“She hopes any doors of secrecy have been blown off their hinges and that fresh air fills the headquarters. She hopes those at the company, past and present, who fear speaking out about harm is a thing of he past. She wishes everyone peace.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Former WWE Board Member Responds to Claims Over WWE’s Investigation of Vince McMahon

In a recent interview with the New York Times, former WWE Board of Director member Jeff Speed denied the claim made by Grant about WWE’s Board did not reach out to her during their investigation in 2022 into McMahon’s sexual misconduct and hush payments allegations.

“I remain confident in our investigation which included outreach to Ms. Grant and engagement with her lawyer.”

Speed also stated that he acknowledges “the horrific nature of the allegations” in Grant’s lawsuit but was “not at liberty to comment on what was and was not learned during our investigation.”