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Update: Vince McMahon has resigned from his roles at WWE and parent company TKO after disturbing new allegations surfaced.
“Out of respect for the WWE Universe, the extraordinary TKO business and its board members and shareholders, partners and constituents, and all of the employees and Superstars who helped make WWE into the global leader it is today, I have decided to resign from my executive chairmanship and the TKO board of directors, effective immediately,” Vince McMahon said in a statement.
For the past several years WWE chairman Vince McMahon has been embroiled in a series of sexual misconduct scandals, some of them stretching back to allegations made more than 30 years ago. In 2022, the company’s board of directors launched an investigation into ‘hush-money’ settlements paid by McMahon totaling nearly $20 million.
As a result of that investigation, Vince McMahon was forced to step down as CEO of the WWE, and eventually announced his retirement. That move was short lived, however, with Vince McMahon returning to the pro-wrestling promotion just six months later to once again take control. In a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, however, one of the apparent recipients of McMahon’s payoffs has filed a lawsuit, exposing his alleged conduct in more disturbing detail.
Wall Street Journal exposes Vince McMahon’s sexual assault claims
The Wall Street Journal has gained access to court documents from a former WWE employee as part of a lawsuit filed in January of 2024. In those documents, the employee claims that they were subjected to sex trafficking perpetrated by Vince McMahon.
This lawsuit appears to have come about after McMahon failed to follow through on a $3 million NDA agreement. Paying only $1 million of the money promised before allegations of his past misconduct became public knowledge in 2022, at which point he stopped further payments. As a result the current lawsuit would nullify the terms of the NDA, along with granting unspecified damages.
In the WSJ article, the accusing party alleges that they met McMahon through a manager at her apartment building in 2019, where the WWE executive lived in the penthouse suite. McMahon reportedly showered them with gifts and pressured them into sex in exchange for employment with the WWE. After sharing photos and stories of his sexual exploits to other WWE employees, the plaintiff alleges that they were also coerced to have sex with former WWE head of talent relations John Laurinaitis, who is also named in the lawsuit.
McMahon controlled her professional and personal lives and subjected her to degradation, according to the suit. In the June 2021 encounter inside the WWE office, the suit said McMahon and Laurinaitis forced themselves on her and took turns restraining her for the other, while saying “No means yes” and “Take it, b—.”
The lawsuit also claims that at one point, during a sexual encounter McMahon “defecated” on the plaintiff’s head, as detailed in a report from Variety.
Citing an example of McMahon’s “extreme depravity,” on May 9, 2020, “he defecated on Ms. Grant during a threesome, and then commanded her to continue pleasuring his ‘friend’ — with feces in her hair and running down her back — while McMahon went to the bathroom to shower off,” the lawsuit says.
Eventually McMahon reportedly paid for an extended stay at a health clinic for the plaintiff due to her deteriorating physical and mental health.
Brock Lesnar named
One of the most notable names to come up in this new lawsuit is former UFC and current WWE superstar Brock Lesnar. Allegedly Vince McMahon shared sexually explicit material featuring the plaintiff with Lesnar, as a lure to get the former NCAA D1 national champion wrestler back under contract in 2021. Afterward, McMahon apparently texted the plaintiff that “part of the deal was f—ing U.”
WSJ reports that Lesnar asked the plaintiff to send a video of themselves urinating, then called them a “b—h” after they complied. Lesnar then attempted to “set a play date,” only to cancel the plan after a snowstorm prevented him from traveling.
TKO statement
The Wall Street Journal claims they have reached out to McMahon, his attorney, Lesnar, and the WWE for comment, but did not receive a response.
In the Variety report, a spokesperson for TKO claimed the company was currently “addressing this matter internally.”
“Mr. McMahon does not control TKO nor does he oversee the day-to-day operations of WWE,” TKO said of the current lawsuit. “While this matter predates our TKO executive team’s tenure at the company, we take [the plaintiff]’s horrific allegations very seriously and are addressing this matter internally.”
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