WWE founder Vince McMahon is being sued by a former employee who alleged that the wrestling icon abused and sexually exploited her and says he trafficked her to other men to get them to sign with his company.
The lawsuit, filed by former WWE employee Janel Grant, was filed in U.S. District Court and claims that McMahon trafficked her to other men “as a pawn to secure talent deals” with wrestlers whom the company was recruiting.
The WWE and former head of talent relations, John Laurinaitis, were also named as defendants in the lawsuit and accused of violating the Trafficking Victims Prevention Act.
The lawsuit alleges civil battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress in relation to a years-long relationship that resulted in the sexual and emotional abuse of Grant while she was an employee of WWE.
Grant is seeking an unspecified monetary amount for the damages, as well as a declaratory judgment that a nondisclosure agreement she signed while an employee of the WWE would be voided and “unenforceable, and does not bar any of Plaintiff’s claims against Defendants McMahon and WWE.”
The lawsuit goes on to say that while on WWE property, both McMahon and Laurinaitis engaged in sexual assault and trafficking of Grant “for their own pleasure and as a pawn to secure talent deals with prospective wrestlers they were recruiting.”
The allegations say McMahon “repeatedly used sex toys named after other WWE employees, wrestlers, and performers to sexually groom Ms. Grant for trafficking to those same people.”
Grant also claims that McMahon “would shower Ms. Grant with gifts and empty work promotions, while at the same time threatening her livelihood and her reputation if she wouldn’t succumb to his increasingly depraved sexual demands, including disseminating pornography of Ms. Grant to ‘thousands’ of individuals and engaging in sex acts with other WWE employees — some of whom were complete strangers.”
The suit also says that while McMahon was CEO and Grant an entry-level coordinator in the legal department, he “recruited individuals to have sexual relations with Ms. Grant and/or with the two of them, directed Ms. Grant to visit Defendant Laurinaitis prior to the start of workdays for sexual encounters, and expected and directed Ms. Grant to engage in sexual activity at the WWE headquarters, even during working hours,” according to the lawsuit.
The relationship allegedly ended when McMahon’s wife learned what was happening, as Grant claims she was “abruptly pressured to resign from the WWE and forced to sign an NDA days before a major financial deadline for the organization under the guise that Mr. McMahon would ‘protect her’ financially and reputationally, and pay her $3 million. However, Mr. McMahon later refused to make payments to Ms. Grant, falsely claiming that she had leaked information to the press,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit then says that Grant was paid $1 million by McMahon in February 2022 but that he “failed to make any further payments.”
McMahon, who stepped down as the CEO of WWE in June 2022 amidst a hush-money scandal that involved allegations of sexual misconduct with another woman, has yet to comment on the lawsuit.