WWE: Janel Grant Files Motion to Strike Vince McMahon Preliminary Statement, Goldberg on In-Ring Career Future, Tiffany Stratton

Apr 25, 2024

Vince McMahon Sex Trafficking Lawsuit Update – Janel Grant Files Motion to Strike McMahon’s Preliminary Statement

As noted before, former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a lawsuit this past January against TKO Executive Chairman Vince McMahon accusing McMahon of committing sex trafficking and sexual abuse towards her during her time in the company. McMahon resigned from TKO Group and WWE shortly afterwards over the fallout from this lawsuit.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Grant’s attorney filed a motion to the United Stattes District Court of Connecticut on Wednesday requesting for McMahon’s preliminary statement to be stricken by the court due to her claims of McMahon making “inflammatory lies” against her.

Portion of Grant’s motion filing:

Plaintiff Janel Grant (“Janel”) respectfully requests that the Court exercise its inherent power to strike the inflammatory lies made in Defendant Vincent K. McMahon’s (“McMahon”) memorandum of law in support of his motion to compel arbitration, filed April 23, 2024, ECF No. 30-1 (the “Motion”).1 Instead of using his Motion in the appropriate manner—to raise legal arguments concerning whether this dispute must be submitted to arbitration—McMahon instead uses the Motion’s “Preliminary Statement” as a platform to launch vicious falsehoods attacking Janel’s moral character in a transparent attempt to harass and intimidate her into submission …
Even for Vince McMahon, the baseless, irrelevant, and false statements in the Motion’s “Preliminary Statement”—designed solely to harass and intimidate his longtime victim, Janel Grant—are a new low. For instance, McMahon’s unsupported assertions that Janel was “absent in her” dying parents’ lives and engaged to a wealthy attorney when she met McMahon are not only falsehoods conceived by McMahon to intimidate Janel into submission—as he has done countless times before—but have nothing to do with the legal arguments raised by the Motion.
McMahon’s lies are easily disproven. In truth, while Janel’s father was in in-home hospice care during his final days, Janel continued to provide him with around-the-clock care. At the same time, Janel had also cared for her blind, wheelchair-bound mother until her death. Moreover, Janel was not dating, let alone engaged to, her ex-fiancé in 2019. To the contrary, Janel’s ex-fiancé generously allowed Janel to stay in his apartment as she rebuilt her life following her parents’ passing. During this time, Janel had no job or other financial support aside from the friendship and generosity of her ex. Consistent with his past behavior, McMahon twists these truths to fit his own fictional narrative, much like the fantasy world of professional wrestling from where he came.
Yet even if McMahon’s falsities concerning Janel’s private life were true (they are not), these statements have no bearing on the merits of Janel’s claims, let alone the Motion. McMahon’s statements have no place in the Motion, which should be concerned solely with whether this dispute must be submitted to arbitration. It was not necessary, reasonable, or responsible to use a public filing to impugn Janel’s moral character. Indeed, McMahon’s desperate attempt to distract from the legal substance of the Motion highlight its weakness and the weakness of his overall case.
This Court has inherent power to strike a party’s filings. The Court should use that power to strike the Motion’s “Preliminary Statement” in its entirety and admonish McMahon and his counsel that such statements have no place in civil litigation.

Goldberg Comments on Future of His Wrestling Career

93.7 The Ticket radio show held a recent interview with WWE Hall of Famer Goldberg. One of the topics discussed included Goldberg’s thoughts about his current plans for a potential retirement match for his wrestling career.

“Oh god, who knows, man? I’ll be perfectly honest with you, I’ve kind of put that on the back burner. Right now, I’ve segued into dad first and foremost. Dad and husband and car host. I’m just having fun at my garage. I really don’t have a lot of time right now to dedicate to prepping for a retirement match. You know as well as I do, when you were in a senior in high school and you were preparing to make that transition to go to college and play football, that was one of the most tumultuous times of your life. I don’t know if that’s the right word to use to describe it, but challenging….so I’m trying to do everything I can in my power 24/7 to get our boy prepped for the next stage of his life. In all honesty, that’s the most important thing I could ever have going, whether I was ready to step in the ring right now or not. I put it all on the back burner for this boy because it’s gonna be tough.
So in an extremely long-winded answer, that’s where I am, man. Yeah, Vince kind of let me down, but it’s the business. It is what it is. It’s kind of like football. I remember I was with the Rams my first year, and my defensive line coach told me after I tore my hamstring in the first preseason game that there was no way I was going to be cut, and lo and behold, the next week, I was cut. So it’s just a business.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Tiffany Stratton Comments on Her Transition to WWE Main Roster

TV Insider held a recent interview with Tiffany Stratton. One of the topics discussed included Stratton’s thoughts about what has been the biggest adjustment in her transition from WWE’s NXT developmental brand to the main roster.

“I would definitely say travel would be the number one, craziest, hardest thing to adapt to. You’re traveling every week, twice or more a week. In NXT, I would travel maybe every couple of months. I would say travel is the hardest part of everything.”