It was a good ten months ago when Endeavor Group Holdings and wrestling entertainment juggernaut WWE formed a new, publicly listed company. With WWE CEO and boss heel Vince McMahon having an estimated net worth of $2.8 billion, he and his powerhouse organization were looking to enter the stratosphere.
However, one of McMahon’s ex-employees, Janel Grant, has come out accusing McMahon of sexual assault, civil battery, intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress and negligence. In addition, she claims McMahon trafficked her to other wrestlers to advance his business interests.
McMahon didn’t do the one thing that would have kept his secrets buried: finish paying the agreed-upon hush money.
Per multiple reports, the two had a nondisclosure agreement that she alleges he pressured her to sign in 2022 in exchange for structured payments amounting to $3 million. The NDA prohibited Grant from publicly discussing her relationship with McMahon or revealing anything negative about him. However, a lawsuit followed when McMahon allegedly defaulted on the agreed-upon payments after the first installment of $1 million.
“Today’s complaint seeks to hold accountable two WWE executives who sexually assaulted and trafficked Plaintiff Janel Grant, as well as the organization that facilitated or turned a blind eye to the abuse and then swept it under the rug,” her attorney Ann Callis said to the media
Now, McMahon can be subject to more significant problems if it is ruled that he broke the terms of the agreement.
Ironically, a scandal made McMahon step down as CEO and chairman of WWE in July 2022, as there were also NDAs with hush payments to other former WWE female employees.
“The board’s investigation, which began in April, has unearthed other, older nondisclosure agreements involving claims by former WWE employees of misconduct by Mr. McMahon and one of his top executives, John Laurinaitis, the head of talent relations at WWE,” The Wall Street Journal reported in June 2022.
The exact number of previous agreements was yet to be known at that time. Later, an investigation found that McMahon had hush payment arrangements totaling almost $15 million to four women over 16 years.
WWE and the UFC are both owned by Endeavor and are a $21 billion live sports and entertainment behemoth with a collective fan base of more than a billion people, per Endeavor.
Vince McMahon is living the wildest realities of his wrestling dream. Now the skeletons in his gilded closet are tainting the 78-year-old’s legacy at what might be the apex of his success.
