Former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a sex trafficking lawsuit last week that named Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and WWE as defendants. McMahon resigned from TKO / WWE the next day.
In an interview with NewsNation, Ann Callis (Grant’s lawyer) said Vince’s resignation is not enough. The culture of WWE needs to change, and other possible victims might come forward:
“It’s been a long process, and [Grant] wants to speak out for any other victims and eradicate this culture of corruption that has permeated every cell of the WWE…My office and my inbox have had a barrage of people wanting to come forward to attest about this culture of corruption and also possible victims. We are just beginning now to wade through all this, but we’re frankly overwhelmed.
… [Grant] wants justice because she wants to change the culture that is going on in the WWE. She wants to help other victims. She thinks by speaking out and coming forward first, that others will feel emboldened and encouraged to come forth.”
When the Vince McMahon hush money story broke in 2022, follow-up reporting indicated that several women were paid millions of dollars in exchange for their silence on alleged sexual misconduct by McMahon. There’s also the early 2023 multi-million dollar legal settlement that Vince reached with Rita Chatterton, who accused McMahon of raping her in the back of a limousine in 1986. The lawsuit filed by Janel Grant last week claims that many people working in WWE had knowledge about Vince’s alleged abuse and either looked the other way or tried to cover it up.
Add it all up, and it’s understandable why some folks who are following the developments of this story expect things will get even worse for WWE; Callis’ claim that she is overwhelmed by the number of people wanting to come forward suggests this could be the tip of the iceberg.
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