Warning: The following story contains graphic descriptions of alleged sexual assaults.
WWE founder Vince McMahon has been accused of sexual assault and trafficking by a former employee in a bombshell lawsuit filed in federal court in Connecticut Thursday.
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The lawsuit, filed by Janel Grant, also names former WWE executive John Laurinaitis, who was in charge of hiring and firing talent, and claims the company was complicit in McMahon’s alleged abuses. Grant seeks an unspecified amount in damages and to void a non-disclosure agreement the suit says McMahon pressured her to sign in 2022, arguing that it can’t be enforced because his conduct was illegal.
The suit says McMahon directed Grant to have sex with him and other men, including at WWE headquarters, defecated on her during a threesome, and caused her pain and bleeding while using sex toys he named after wrestlers, among other sordid allegations.
“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,” said Grant’s attorney Ann Callis in a statement to VICE News.
“She is an incredibly private and courageous person who has suffered deeply at the hands of Mr. McMahon and Mr. Laurinaitis. Ms. Grant hopes that her lawsuit will prevent other women from being victimized. The organization is well aware of Mr. McMahon’s history of depraved behavior, and it’s time that they take responsibility for the misconduct of its leadership.”
Callis declined to comment on whether she expects other women to come forward with similar allegations and whether Grant will be making a criminal complaint.
The WWE did not respond to VICE News’ request for comment. Nor did Netflix, the CW, and USA Network, with which WWE recently announced lucrative long-term broadcasting deals; Fox, which currently airs its popular Smackdown show; or Endeavor, the Ari Emanuel-run conglomerate that merged WWE and the UFC.
A spokesperson for McMahon told Deadline the lawsuit is “replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and a vindictive distortion of the truth. He will vigorously defend himself.”
Jerry McDevitt, who was named McMahon’s lawyer in the suit, told the Washington Post he’s no longer representing McMahon.
In a tangled series of scandals, McMahon—currently executive chairman of TKO, a company that was formed in a $21 billion deal last fall by merging WWE and the UFC—was revealed by the WSJ two years ago to have paid out $12 million in hush money to secure NDAs from women accusing him of sexual misconduct. After a WWE investigation, it was reported that he had made payments totaling $19.6 million. Last year, he also reached a settlement with Rita Chatterton, a woman who said he raped her in the 1980s.
In a statement to VICE News, a TKO spokesperson said, “Mr. McMahon does not control TKO nor does he oversee the day-to-day operations of WWE. While this matter pre-dates our TKO executive team’s tenure at the company, we take Ms. Grant’s horrific allegations very seriously and are addressing this matter internally.”
According to Grant’s lawsuit, McMahon and Grant met in 2019 because they lived in the same building and he offered her “career-making and life-changing promises” but during meetings would greet her in his underwear and touch her.
It says he pressured her into having a physical relationship and hired her for an administrative role, later moving her to the talent department reporting to Laurinaitis. In March 2020, Grant said McMahon began sharing sexually explicit photos of videos of Grant to other men at WWE as well as people outside the company, including a former UFC Heavyweight Champion. The lawsuit alleges that McMahon’s status at the company resulted in Grant feeling coerced to submit to his “increasingly depraved sexual demands” in order to keep her job. It also said he bought her gifts to keep her under his control, including a BMW 430XI, $20,000 in surgery, and $15,000 in Bloomingdales gift cards.
McMahon allegedly recruited people to have sex with Grant, requiring her to have sex with Laurinaitis before the start of workdays, which Laurinaitis dubbed “breakfast”, and directing her to have sex during work hours at WWE headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. Laurinaitis was fired by the WWE in 2022 shortly after the McMahon hush money scandal became public.
The lawsuit alleged that during a threesome in May 2020, McMahon defecated on her and went to shower while ordering her to continue pleasuring his friend. After he returned, Grant alleges McMahon and his friend continued having sex with her while she was covered in feces. The suit alleges the threesome lasted for over 90 minutes and that even after McMahon’s friend left, he ordered her to “continue to sexually gratify him.”
Grant alleges McMahon and Laurinaitis sexually assaulted her together inside Laurinaitis’ office at the WWE headquarters.
“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, bitch.’”
Grant also claims McMahon caused her bleeding in pain while forcefully using dildos on her that he named after different WWE wrestlers.
“McMahon named the sex toys so that the color of the toy matched the race of the wrestler—for example, a black ‘dildo’ would be named after an African American wrestler and a white ‘dildo’ would be named after a Caucasian wrestler,” the lawsuit says.
Text messages allegedly from McMahon to Grant included in the suit repeatedly refer to her having sex with other men. In one of them, McMahon said he told 12 men Grant would “love to fuck each” and “she may scream and try to say NO!! Although it would be difficult to say anything with a c–k down her throat.”
The lawsuit says McMahon cut off his relationship with Grant in January 2022, stating that his wife had discovered their relationship, which is when he pressured Grant to sign the NDA. In exchange, he allegedly said he would safeguard her reputation and pay her $3 million but he only paid $1 million. But even as they were discussing the NDA, the lawsuit says McMahon instructed Grant to send sexually explicit photos to him and another WWE superstar.
After she signed the NDA, the lawsuit said Grant met with McMahon in his condo to discuss “outstanding business items” and, while she was leaving, ordered her to get on her knees and forced her head into his groin. After she began retching and crying, the lawsuit said McMahon let her go and they never saw each other again.
The alleged abuse “has left Ms. Grant crippled, both physically and mentally, including from debilitating symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal ideation,” the lawsuit alleges, adding that she was fired from a subsequent job due to not being able to leave her home for weeks at a time.
The lawsuit alleges other WWE executives knew about Grant’s relationship with McMahon, in part because he told them, and that the company “actively sought to conceal the wrongdoing.”
As a result of McMahon’s alleged abuse, the suit says Grant has suffered “severe and permanent trauma” that at one point required inpatient treatment. It says she suffers from weight loss, insomnia, rashes, flashbacks to her exploitation, nightmares, panic attacks, and depression and has been isolated from family and friends due to the terms of the NDA.
With files from Tim Marchman
This story has been updated to include a statement from McMahon’s spokesperson.
