WWE: The Rock on “Final Boss” Surprise Return at Bad Blood 2024, Janel Grant Spokeswoman on Request to WWE to Waive NDAs for Other Employees for Vince McMahon Lawsuit, More News

Oct 11, 2024

The Rock Comments on His “Final Boss” Surprise Return at WWE Bad Blood 2024

As noted before, this past Saturday’s WWE Bad Blood 2024 event in Atlanta, Georgia featured Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson making his surprise return to WWE.

Johnson recently reflected on Instagram about his recent surprise return to WWE and the “Final Boss” being engaged.

“The show ain’t over, until the Final Boss says it’s over.
There’s no business like show business, and there’s no connection stronger and more electrifying than that of the people and the people’s champ.
You can FEEL the MANA.
FINAL BOSS. ENGAGED.
See ya down the road

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Janel Grant Spokeswoman Kendra Baroff Lamy Comments on Grant’s Legal Team’s Request to WWE to Waive NDAs for Other Employees for Vince McMahon Lawsuit

As noted before, former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a lawsuit this past January against former TKO Executive Chairman Vince McMahon accusing McMahon of committing sex trafficking and sexual abuse towards her during her time in the company. Grant’s legal team recently emailed WWE, McMahon, and John Laurinaitis’ legal teams this past Monday requesting for WWE to release former and current employees from their non-disclosure agreements that are related to their allegations and legal case against McMahon.

A recent episode of the Post Wrestling x Wrestlenomics podcast featured Kendra Barkoff Lamy, Grant’s spokewoman, as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Lamy’s thoughts about if Grant’s team has heard from other former WWE employees about their experiences in the company.

“I know that Janel’s legal team has heard from former employees about their experience within WWE. They themselves, even most recently, up until a couple of days ago, have heard from former employees about this toxic work environment that existed within WWE, and could potentially….we don’t know what’s going on now, which is part of the reason why we are asking for them to open up their doors, allow these women and potentially men, to speak freely and waive these NDAs if they have nothing to hide. If they claim they’ve turned the page on this abuse and toxic workplace, then let these people speak about their experience so they can move on.”

Lamy also gave her thoughts about the specific changes WWE could do to improve their workplace culture.

“This is the first step in what they need to do. We all saw the Vince McMahon documentary. He obviously was a big problem within WWE. A lot of the same people who were around when Ms. Grant experienced what she experienced are still there and are still working at that organization. Until we truly know the depth of the problem, we won’t be able to understand how as a culture we can move forward.”

Lamy also gave her thoughts about if McMahon would have to sign off on waiving the past NDAs.

“The letter says they want WWE and Vince McMahon. It’s hard to know who signed what and when. There are all of these pieces. We do know that folks have signed them and they are out there, but without knowing what the NDAs say, it’s a little speculative to know who signed which individual NDA.”

Lamy also gave her thoughts about if there was a certain bar that WWE could reach that would make Grant consider dropping them from her lawsuit.

“If they want to clean up this mess, they should allow these women to speak freely and allow former employees to speak freely. Everybody has read the lawsuit and complaint. It is very detailed in the allegations. There is a reason why she is going after the organization as a whole. It is because as a company you are responsible for protecting your employees. At the current time, the lawsuit is in a stay. The federal government asked her to hang tight as they do their investigation into Vince McMahon. There is nothing happening on her current lawsuit. She’s in a little bit of a holding pattern of waiting. In the meantime, that’s part of the reason why and why it’s even more important and why she wanted to send this letter, to show that the sunlight is the best disinfectant. Let’s get in there. You guys say this was all Mr. McMahon’s doing and there was no one else in the organization that participated, then great, put it back on him and show it was him and there are no other issues. We can’t know that until they become transparent and allow these people to speak.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

WWE News & Notes

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that several readers in several countries, including Mexico, Brazil, and Israel, recently informed him that Netflix currently lists not only WWE RAW but also WWE Friday Night SmackDown and WWE NXT airing live on the service for international markets starting in January of 2025. Johnson reported that the reason would be due to WWE’s expiring international television deals and Netflix is currently set to become the new home of WWE’s television shows in those markets afterwards. Johnson also reported that WWE leaving the international television markets should be a big positive for other wrestling companies such as AEW, TNA, and MLW for potential new international deals from networks seeking to replace WWE.

TKO Group recently announced that they will be holding their next investor’s call meeting on November 6th starting at 5PM EST. This upcoming meeting will be TKO discussing the results from their 2024 third quarter fiscal report.

WWE recently released one new video to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was a WCW United States Championship match of Sting vs. Bret Hart (c).

In a recent interview with Jazzy’s World TV, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque gave his thoughts about what he is the most proud of from his wrestling career. Levesque stated “You know, all of it. I was just a kid with a dream that was incredibly lucky. A lot of times – right place, right time, the whole thing. I love what I do and I’m fortunate enough – if I was to say what do I love best about what I do, it’s that I have fun doing it every single day. I have the best job. Had the best job when I was in the ring and have an even better job now. To me, I’m helping create the future of what we do, so I love what I do and I love having the opportunity to do it.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)

In a recent interview with the Notsam Wrestling podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle gave his thoughts about how he felt he wasn’t appreciated by WWE during his second run in the company. Angle stated “I wanted John [Cena] to be my retirement match, I don’t know if you knew that, but I requested that to Vince. He said, ‘You’re going to have to wait until next year because you have a program with Baron Corbin.’ So I was like, ‘Ok, but I don’t think I can go another year, Vince.’ He said, ‘Well, then, it is what it is. I love Baron Corbin, but I just felt that my second time in WWE — I wasn’t so much appreciated. I think it has a lot to do with me leaving the company high and dry in 2006 and going straight to TNA. See, I was supposed to go back to WWE in six months. Vince wanted me to take six months off and come back. So, literally when I left his office and I quit, I called [TNA] and got a contract that day. I didn’t wait a second. I knew what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. And I think they were like, ‘Ok, well, if he comes back, we’re going to teach him a little lesson.’ You know? [laughs] Which is fine, I understood.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)

In a recent episode of The Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore podcast, WWE Hall of Famer and co-host Booker T gave his thoughts about the recent controversy over the lack of black male wrestlers representation on WWE PLEs over the past two years and if WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque has any bias against black male wrestlers. Booker T stated “I don’t think it’s any bias at all. I don’t think it’s looked at that way from Triple H. Me personally, I don’t. Just because I’m there, I’m there on a weekly basis. I know what the show needs to actually thrive and get to the next level. Has there been bias in the wrestling business, in the wrestling company before? Yes, there has. Are angles perhaps touchy? Yes. I’ve been a part of them. But do I think it’s race-related or anything like that, or someone being belittled on purpose? I saw something that there hadn’t been any black guys on [premium live events] in the last three months. Then I’m gonna say, okay, what guys are we talking about that we saying that should be on the pay-per-view? Are they in any angles to warrant a reason for being on the pay-per-view? [Laughs] I’m just saying. Because this thing goes and ebbs and flows. One thing about this business, it’s just a fact, there’s more white guys in it than there are black guys and girls. It just is. It’s always been that way. I never look at should someone just be on the show. I look at whether their talent warrants them being on the show, and as well, are they in an angle right now? Sometimes, you might want to see me, but I might want to be off.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

WWE recently announced one new match for the card of Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Greenville, South Carolina: