What are the Vince McMahon sexual abuse and human trafficking allegations?

Vince McMahon, the former owner of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), is the subject of a new Netflix documentary, called Mr McMahon, that chronicles his downfall and the sexual abuse allegations filed against him.

The 79-year-old, who is a friend of president-elect Donald Trump, who recently nominated McMahon’s estranged wife, Linda as education secretary, has always had controversy attached to his name which the new documentary explores. However, whether it was wrestlers committing murders or steroid scandals that wind up as criminal court cases, McMahon always managed to survive and retain his position as the head of the biggest wrestling company in the world, now estimated to have a net worth of $6.87 billion.

McMahon ran the company, which he purchased from his father, with an iron grip between 1982 and 2023. He retired in July 2022 when the WWE board began conducting an investigation against over multi-million-dollar payouts he allegedly made to a paralegal at the company, according to the Wall Street Journal.

McMahon continued his role as the executive chairman of the TKO Group, WWE’s parent company, with his daughter Stephanie replacing him as co-CEO alongside Nick Khan. She would then quit in January 2023 when her father made a brief return to the company as executive chairman, where he oversaw the merger between WWE and UFC under the TKO umbrella. His son-in-law Paul “Triple H” Levesque has been Executive Vice-President of Talent Relation and Head of WWE Creative since July 2022.

open image in gallery

It wasn’t until January 2024 that McMahon stepped from his position in TKO “out of respect” for both companies amid allegations that he sexually exploited and trafficked a former employee, Janel Grant, to other men during his tenure as CEO.

This is the most recent sexual assault allegation against McMahon but is amongst a slew of accusations against him dating back to 1986.

All the allegations of sexual assault and human trafficking against Vince McMahon:

In June 2022, an investigation was launched by World Wrestling Entertainment against McMahon over an alleged $3m hush-money settlement that he paid an ex-female employee whom he reportedly had an affair with.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a settlement was reached with the woman, who was hired as a paralegal for WWE in 2019, which prevented her from speaking about the supposed relationship with McMahon or making any critical statements about the wrestling promoter.

According to the report, the board’s investigation also revealed several nondisclosure pacts related to other misconduct claims from other women who had also worked at WWE. These agreements related not just to McMahon but also to WWE’s former talent executive John Laurinaitis.

The preliminary findings of the board’s investigation found that McMahon used his own funds to reach an agreement with the employee. WWE’s board only learned about these payments after they received a series of anonymous emails from someone claiming to be a friend of the woman involved in the alleged affair.

One note in the emails claims that McMahon increased the woman’s salary from $100,000 to $200,000 after he began a sexual relationship with her but eventually "gave her like a toy" to Laurinaitis.

A quote from the email reportedly states: "My friend was so scared so she quit after Vince McMahon and lawyer Jerry [McDevitt] paid her millions of dollars to shut up."

Just weeks after the report was released, McMahon announced that he was finally stepping down from his position in the company. In a statement, he said: “As I approach 77 years old, I feel it’s time for me to retire as Chairman and CEO of WWE. Throughout the years, it’s been a privilege to help WWE bring you joy, inspire you, thrill you, surprise you, and always entertain you.

“I would like to thank my family for mightily contributing to our success, and I would also like to thank all of our past and present Superstars and employees for their dedication and passion for our brand. Most importantly, I would like to thank our fans for allowing us into your homes every week and being your choice of entertainment. I hold the deepest appreciation and admiration for our generations of fans all over the world who have liked, currently like, and sometimes even love our form of Sports Entertainment.”

open image in gallery

Just two days after Dwayne Johnson was announced as joining the TKO board and WWE secured a huge TV rights deal with Netflix, Janel Grant filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Connecticut against Vince McMahon.

The lawsuit alleges that McMahon and WWE’s former head of talent relations John Laurinaitis violated the Trafficking Victims Prevention Act and inflicted years of sexual and emotional abuse upon Grant. McMahon reportedly created a position for Grant in WWE’s legal department in 2019 after he befriended her following the death of her parents, which left her on the brink of bankruptcy.

She alleges that in June 2021 she was locked in an office in WWE HQ where McMahon and another executive took turns in raping her. “Behind a locked door, the two men cornered her and pulled her in between them, forcibly touched her, before ultimately putting her on top of a table in between them,” the lawsuit reads. “She begged them to stop, but they forced themselves on her, each taking turns restraining her for the other, while saying ‘No means yes’ and ‘Take it, b***h.’”

The suit also claims that "McMahon repeatedly used sex toys named after other WWE employees, wrestlers and performers to sexually groom Ms Grant for trafficking to those same people. Such was the extent of this abuse that Grant says she suffered bruising and bleeding from the toys. It is also noted that during an alleged threesome, McMahon engaged in a moment of ‘"extreme depravity" and defecated on Grant.

In March 2020, McMahon was also accused of sharing nude pornographic content of Grant with other employees including "a world-famous athlete and former UFC Heavyweight Champion with whom WWE was actively trying to sign to a new contract (and ultimately did sign that contract)".

During these negotiations, Grant’s phone number was given to the star who was told "she’ll do anything” upon request. The star asked Grant, who was by this point “numb”, for a video of herself urinating, which she sent. That same month. McMahon had expressed a desire to meet Grant for sex but a snowstorm prevented the two from ever meeting.

As Grant’s mental health deteriorated she began "experiencing increasingly severe physical, mental and emotional symptoms, including sleep disruption, dizziness, exhaustion, rashes, weight loss, hair loss and migraines." McMahon then referred Grant to his own “celebrity doctor” and paid $20,000 to a surgeon for her.

Grant signed the NDA in January 2022 following constant pressure from McMahon, who claimed that his wife Linda had learned of the relationship. However, the payments that Grant had agreed to ultimately stopped being paid to her.

At the time, a spokesperson for McMahon said: “This lawsuit is replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and a vindictive distortion of the truth. He will vigorously defend himself.”

TKO said in response: “While this matter predates our TKO executive team’s tenure at the company, we take Ms Grant’s horrific allegations very seriously and are addressing this matter internally. Mr McMahon does not control TKO nor does he oversee the day-to-day operations of WWE.”

After days of pressure from executives and Slim Jim threatening to pull out as WWE sponsor, McMahon agreed to resign as a TKO Executive Chairman.

In an updated statement, McMahon’s representatives said: “I stand by my prior statement that Ms Grant’s lawsuit is replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and is a vindictive distortion of the truth. I intend to vigorously defend myself against these baseless accusations, and look forward to clearing my name. However, 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.”

Mr McMahon added: "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.”

open image in gallery

In a statement to Vice, Laurinaitis’s lawyer said: “Mr Laurinaitis denies the allegations in the misguided complaint and will be vigorously defending these charges in Court, not the media. Like the Plaintiff, Mr Laurinaitis is a victim in this case, not a predator. The truth will come out.”

On 2 February, the Wall Street Journal reported that in July 2023 federal agents had issued a search warrant on McMahon’s phone and had been served a subpoena for documents related to any allegation of “rape, sex trafficking, sexual assault, commercial sex transaction, harassment or discrimination” against current or former WWE employees.

After his lawyers filed their first response to Grant, McMahon said that her “outrageous claims of sexual abuse and coercion are pure fiction – plainly intended to garner publicity – and are flatly contradicted by Plaintiff’s own contemporaneous statements.” Laurinatis’s lawyers issue a similar statement saying that “Grant’s allegations of sexual abuse and coercion in her Complaint are completely unfounded.”

As of May 2024, Grant’s lawsuit is pending investigation by the Southern District of New York.

Ahead of the release of the Netflix documentary, which Grant did not participate in but was reportedly asked, her attorney Ann Callis said that her client now suffers from PTSD and suicidal intentions and is unable to leave her home for weeks on end. During a press conference on 19 September, Callis said: “Janel is a human being who deserves justice. She deserves her day in court. That’s our bottom line. She’s a victim and a survivor. She’s not a WWE storyline.”

Grant has also hired Kendra Barkoff Lamy of the PR firm SKDK, who has a history of working with victims of the likes of Harvey Weinstein, Marilyn Manson and Jeffrey Epstein.

A day before the release of the Netflix documentary, McMahon released a statement on social media distancing himself from the series and also criticising it.

He said: “I don’t regret participating in this Netflix documentary. The producers had an opportunity to tell an objective story about my life and the incredible business I built, which were equally filled with excitement, drama, fun, and a fair amount of controversy and life lessons. Unfortunately, based on an early partial cut I’ve seen, this doc falls short and takes the predictable path of conflating the ‘Mr McMahon’ character with my true self, Vince. The title and promos alone make that evident.”

McMahon continues: “A lot has been misrepresented or left out entirely in an effort to leave viewers intentionally confused. The producers use typical editing tricks with out-of-context footage and dated soundbites etc to distort the viewers’ perception and support a deceptive narrative. In an attempt to further their misleading account, the producers use a lawsuit based on an affair I ended as evidence that I am, in fact, ‘Mr McMahon.’ I hope the viewer will keep an open mind and remember that there are two sides to every story.”

In response, Callis said: “Vince McMahon physically and emotionally abused, sexually assaulted and human trafficked Janel Grant for more than two years. Calling his horrific and criminal behaviour “an affair” is delusional and nothing more than a sad attempt to save his shredded reputation. Although Ms Grant has not seen the Mr McMahon docuseries, we hope it shines a bright light on his abhorrent and criminal actions by accurately portraying the realities of his abusive and exploitative behaviour. Ms Grant will no longer be silenced by McMahon. Her story, though deeply troubling and exceptionally painful, is one that can help other abuse survivors find their voices. We seek to hold McMahon, John Laurinaitis and WWE accountable and to give Ms. Grant her day in court.”

A lawsuit filed against WWE in October, alleges that Melvin Phillips, who died in 2012, would target young men from disadvantaged backgrounds and hire them as “ring boys” to help with the preparations for wrestling matches. Phillips would then assault them in his dressing room, hotels and even in the wrestlers’ locker room, according to the complaint, which was filed on behalf of five men.

The abuse detailed in the lawsuit occurred over several years during Phillips’ long tenure with the organization, which spanned from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Because of his death, Phillips is not among the named defendants.

Instead, the complaint targets World Wrestling Entertainment founders Vince and Linda McMahon, the husband and wife team who grew the organization into the powerhouse it is today. The couple was well aware of Phillips’ brazen misconduct but did little to stop him, according to the complaint.

“This wasn’t an isolated instance,” said attorney Greg Gutzler, who represents the five unnamed plaintiffs. “There was a culture of abuse and it started at the top.”

According to the lawsuit, which was filed in Baltimore County Circuit Court, the abuse occurred in several states, including Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. The plaintiffs were all between 13 and 15 when they met Phillips.

An attorney representing McMahon, Jessica Rosenberg, denied the latest abuse allegations contained in the complaint. In a written statement, she referenced New York Post reporting from the early ‘90s, saying the recent lawsuit asserts “these same false claims.”

“We will vigorously defend Mr McMahon and are confident the court will find that these claims are untrue and unfounded,” the statement read.

Historic cases:

Two more historic cases against McMahon have come to light since the Janel Grant allegations were published.

Rita Chatterton was the first-ever female referee employed by WWE. Billed as ‘Rita Marie’ she worked for the company between 1984 and 1986. Chatterton’s story resurfaced following the hush money scandal and the Janel Grant allegations.

She claims that in July 1986, McMahon raped her in his limousine in New York after telling her that she needed to sexually satisfy him to obtain a $500,000 contract, as per the Wall Street Journal.

Chatterton made the allegations during two 1992 televised interviews on journalist GeraldoRivera’s shows. In 1993, McMahon later tried to sue Rivera along with his production company and Chatterton. McMahon dropped the case after being wrapped up in a steroid scandal, which he was acquitted of.

In November 2022, Chatterton’s lawyers wrote to McMahon demanding $11.75m in damages. In January 2023, Chatterton reportedly agreed to settle with McMahon for an amount lesser than the one requested.

McMahon’s lawyer, Jerry McDevitt said in a statement: “Mr McMahon denies and always has denied raping Ms Chatterton. And he settled the case solely to avoid the cost of litigation.”

In February 2024, Vice published a previously unreleased statement by former WWE wrestler Ashley Massaro who worked for the company between 2005 and 2008, claiming that McMahon preyed upon her. After she rejected his advances, McMahon began editing her on-screen character, which she believed was done to damage her reputation.

open image in gallery

The statement, which has one redaction, reads as follows: “During my time with the WWE, I had observed Vince McMahon making out with other divas [female wrestlers] in the locker room, but he never paid attention to me, and I assumed I was not his type. This changed after my Playboy cover was released. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to fly on the company jet and stay at the same hotels as the executives for a period of time so that I could get home faster to spend more time with my daughter.

“On one of these occasions, Vince was attempting to get me alone with him in his hotel room late at night and I felt extraordinarily uncomfortable. He began calling the hotel room phone and my cell phone nonstop. I called Kevin Dunn [a long-term WWE producer who left the company in 2023] to explain the situation and he said I should tell Vince I was not feeling well and would see him on TV the next day, so I did. Immediately after that night, Vince started writing my promos for me.

“Vince does not write promos for female wrestlers – that is the job of the creative department – and he certainly wouldn’t have, under any normal circumstances, written a promo for me. But he did, and the promos were written with the clear intention of ruining my career. I brought the first script Vince wrote for me to the WWE employee in charge of Creative at the time, Michael Hayes, and he said, ‘You’re not saying this, who the [expletive] wrote this?’ and I told him that Vince did.

“He said, ‘Well kid, these are the breaks,’ meaning that Vince wanted to end my career and destroy my reputation on my way out. He is known for this type of behaviour and also did this to [REDACTED] upon her departure from WWE. In addition, after that night, each time I walked by him he would make vulgar sexual comments that were clearly designed to make me uncomfortable.”

This followed a separate report from Vice, which stated that Massaro was raped on a military base by a US army doctor in Kuwait while taking part in a WWE ‘goodwill’ trip in 2006. In an affidavit released by her lawyer after her death in 2019, Massaro claimed that McMahon told her to remain silent on the incident to “not to let one bad experience ruin the good work they were doing”.

An investigation into Massaro’s claims was launched by the Naval Criminal Intelligence Service in June 2019 and concluded in January 2020, the results of which have not been made public.

After her death in 2019, WWE released a statement about Massaro’s claims about the Kuwait incident. As per Newsweek, the statement said: “WWE is saddened by the death of Ashley Massaro, and we reiterate our condolences to her family. However, we regret that her attorney Konstantine Kyros, who filed multiple cases against WWE, lost all of them, and was sanctioned multiple times by the Court for repeated misconduct and false allegations, is using Ashley’s death to further his malicious campaign against WWE by releasing an affidavit that she submitted to the Court and later apologised to WWE for being involved with, so we wish to make certain things crystal clear.

“At no time was Vince McMahon or the management of WWE ever informed by Ashley Massaro or anybody else that she had been sexually assaulted, drugged, raped or sodomized by a military doctor with a nurse standing guard while on a goodwill tour in 2007 to U.S. military bases in Kuwait. In fact, if she ever articulated such a claim to WWE, we would have reported it immediately to the Base Commander.”

John Laurinaitis’s lawyer Edward Brennan has since denied that there was a “cover-up.” In the statement, Brennan said: “Any allegations that Mr Laurinaitus helped to cover up an alleged rape allegation is an outright lie. Johnny, like most upper-level management at some time became aware of the allegations and ensured all proper WWE protocols were followed, including privacy for the alleged victim. We object to the use of the term cover up as no such plan or plot ever took place to hide or assist in the alleged rape.”

Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, Janel Grant and WWE have been contacted for comment.

Rape Crisis offers support for those affected by rape and sexual abuse. You can call them on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, and 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland, or visit their website at www.rapecrisis.org.uk.

If you are in the US, you can call Rainn on 800-656-HOPE (4673)