The Shocking Downfall of Vince McMahon

Sportskeeda Wrestling

In this eye-opening video, we delve into the shocking and controversial downfall of Vince McMahon, the iconic figure behind WWE, as he faces grave accusations of sexual abuse and trafficking involving former employee Janel Grant. This gripping exposé explores the disturbing details surrounding the allegations, shedding light on a dark chapter that has rocked the world of professional wrestling. Join us in this comprehensive exploration as we navigate the complex and sensitive terrain surrounding the downfall of Vince McMahon. Note that the information presented in this video is based on publicly available sources and will be updated as the situation develops. Viewer discretion is advised due to the mature nature of the subject matter. -------  You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe  #vincemcmahon #janelgrant #wwe #wrestling #sportskeedawrestling

Transcript

00:00 I've got an insatiable appetite for life and I want more, more, more!

00:12 Let's talk about it, the big Vince McMahon story.

00:16 Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know by now that Vince McMahon

00:20 has gone from the WWE/TKO organization, this time, for good.

00:27 While he was forced to resign in 2022 over a report from Wall Street Journal alleging

00:32 that he sent hush money payments to women he had intimate relationships with, he managed

00:40 to force a hostile takeover thanks to his position and the structure of shares he held

00:45 in WWE.

00:47 It seemed like a dark day for WWE when he came back, but his return was mainly to facilitate

00:53 the sale of WWE, which led to the TKO merger and him becoming richer than ever.

01:00 To explain how he made that hostile takeover, the fact of the matter is that he wasn't

01:05 actually a majority shareholder.

01:08 But back in 1999, McMahon structured the shares of the company in such a way that his and

01:14 the McMahon family shares were worth more than anybody else's and this created a system

01:20 where he would always be in control.

01:24 This time around, he doesn't have that same type of control.

01:28 He owns roughly 11% of the TKO company and while he might technically be the largest

01:33 individual shareholder, he doesn't have the same type of power that he once did, which

01:39 is why he is gone within days of the recent lawsuit and reports of allegations.

01:46 When the allegations came out, Vince McMahon was quick to deny it, but TKO's response

01:55 told an entirely different story.

01:58 They took the allegations seriously and rather than outright denying it, they vowed to conduct

02:04 an investigation while also stating that Vince McMahon, the executive freaking chairman of

02:10 the company, wasn't responsible for day to day operations.

02:14 It's easy to see why nobody really believes the last part of that statement, especially

02:20 when UFC President Dana White directly stated that Vince McMahon was responsible for negotiating

02:26 UFC's deal with Saudi Arabia.

02:30 It seemed to be a way for TKO to save face, which is probably why they were quick to remove

02:35 Vince McMahon from his position.

02:38 And that ladies and gentlemen, was the disgraceful end to Vince McMahon's career in WWE, overcome

02:45 by allegations from an incident a few years ago.

02:49 Now let's get into the part about the story of Janelle Grant and Vince McMahon and how

02:54 it led to the end of his career as the most powerful man in wrestling.

02:59 Janelle Grant was a regular person in a very difficult situation in life.

03:05 She lost both her parents and got pretty much the equivalent of zero inheritance, both in

03:10 terms of money and assets like property.

03:14 Desperate to figure a way out of her situation, she was told by someone living in her apartment

03:20 that she needed to meet Vince McMahon, who happened to have a penthouse in the same building.

03:26 Mind you, Vince and Linda McMahon had been separated for a very long time and stories

03:32 of his infidelity had gone back decades.

03:35 It was the worst kept secret of his life.

03:38 Either way, she did meet Vince McMahon and the position of power was clear from the start.

03:44 She was just desperate and looking for employment, while McMahon was a multi-billionaire who

03:50 could help her.

03:52 You probably know what happens from here, but it allegedly wasn't just a regular case

03:57 of an intimate relationship starting between an employee and her boss.

04:02 He allegedly used his position of power to have intimate relationships with her, but

04:07 according to the 67-page lawsuit, it took a turn for the worse very quickly.

04:14 Mind you, this was back in 2021, so it wasn't a very long time ago.

04:20 Just a trigger warning that some of the contents of the lawsuit are highly upsetting and frankly

04:27 downright disgusting.

04:29 It's important to remember that these are still accusations at this point, but we're

04:34 going to water it down as much as possible and not go into the graphic details of it.

04:40 If you want to read the lawsuit in detail, you can take a look at it on the Wall Street

04:45 Journal website.

04:47 Just remember that it isn't for the faint of heart.

04:51 The lawsuit basically comes down to the fact that Vince McMahon allegedly used his position

04:56 of power to not only have intimate relationships, but roped in other executives and people he

05:02 knew into intimate situations, with the most prominent executive being none other than

05:09 John Larinitis.

05:11 The formal charge made against McMahon is of him sexually abusing her and sex trafficking

05:17 her to other people in the company.

05:19 The grueling details of the lawsuit reveal some of the sickening acts that McMahon allegedly

05:24 made her do, which made her feel caged and imprisoned, in the words of her own lawyer.

05:31 McMahon was also supposedly forthcoming about the fact that he had world class legal resources

05:36 on speed dial, which was essentially a direct threat made to Janelle Grant, to keep their

05:41 relationship a secret.

05:47 McMahon was also accused of bragging about his encounters with Janelle Grant to other

05:52 WWE employees, but perhaps the most damning evidence was the screenshots that were supposedly

05:58 from Vince McMahon himself to Janelle Grant.

06:03 Again, this can all be seen in the lawsuit, but the graphic nature of the text messages

06:08 that McMahon sent to Janelle tells you a larger part of the story.

06:13 It should be noted that A) text messages can be easily proven fake, and B)

06:20 McMahon nor anyone else has denied the truth about the text messages, which has made many

06:25 believe that they are in fact legitimate.

06:30 The argument that's being made is that even if everything else that Janelle Grant accused

06:36 McMahon of is false, and only the text messages are true, it's enough to take him to task.

06:43 Oh, and did we mention that McMahon reportedly offered Janelle Grant to a former UFC heavyweight

06:51 champion?

06:52 That really kind of narrows it down doesn't it?

06:55 But this champion was negotiating a deal with WWE in 2021.

07:00 The lawsuit stated that Janelle Grant was told to send an obscene video to said former

07:05 UFC heavyweight champion, and their meetup didn't happen because of bad weather conditions.

07:12 If the text messages and allegations are true, then it's a shocking visual of the clear

07:18 abuse of power that McMahon was allegedly using against an employee who was just trying

07:23 to make it in her career.

07:25 For many, one of the most disturbing things about this situation is how Vince McMahon

07:31 supposedly used his position of power to prey on someone much younger and in an obviously

07:37 vulnerable position.

07:38 We're not so sure what the thought process of it was, but in 2022, Vince McMahon made

07:46 Janelle Grant sign an NDA worth $3 million.

07:51 The $3 million was supposed to be paid over the course of 6 installments, but it halted

07:57 once the amount reached $1 million.

08:00 So just imagine, Vince McMahon supposedly felt the entire situation and covering it

08:07 up was worth $3 million freaking dollars.

08:11 To put that into perspective, McMahon was reported to have made another woman sign an

08:16 NDA worth $7.5 million a couple of decades ago, as per Dave Meltzer on the Wrestling

08:24 Observer Newsletter.

08:25 Adjusted to inflation, that's $11 million.

08:30 Perhaps it was the Wall Street Journal report in 2022 that made him think that Janelle Grant

08:35 snitched, which is a bit weird considering that the story is supposedly that he bragged

08:41 about his exploits with her to multiple people, which means it could have been anyone really.

08:47 The lawsuit has also exposed the fact that Vince McMahon has allegedly made multiple

08:52 women sign NDAs with a total amount ranging from $17 million to $19 million.

09:00 If, and we have to emphasize the if part of this, if it's true, then it essentially

09:06 exposes what has been a decades long pattern from the most powerful man in sports entertainment.

09:13 As for John Larinitis, his lawyer sent an official statement to Vice saying that Larinitis,

09:19 just like Janelle Grant, was a victim and not a perpetrator.

09:24 He stated that his intention was to battle it out in court rather than facing trial by

09:29 media.

09:30 As if there were enough twists in this tale, Larinitis turning on Vince McMahon certainly

09:35 wasn't something people expected to see.

09:38 You're probably wondering, wait, if she signed an NDA, how was she able to file a

09:44 lawsuit?

09:45 Well, NDAs are made null and void if they include sexual assault, which in this case,

09:52 it does.

09:54 We have to give credit where credit is due to Janelle Grant who undoubtedly had to go

09:59 through a lot of suffering and a lot of courage to go up against the most powerful man in

10:05 a multi-billion dollar industry.

10:08 But what it really says is that there is a sad reality to this world because there are

10:13 people far richer and far more powerful than Vince McMahon who constantly get away with

10:20 abusive behavior and cover it up without a single hitch.

10:25 But it could be a house of cards that's all crumbling down, especially with the recent

10:29 report that federal investigators have been interviewing past victims of Vince McMahon.

10:36 They could be making an example out of him.

10:38 There's been a lot of criticism in the wake of the lawsuit.

10:42 Whether it was Vince McMahon, higher ups, or others, there's been a call from fans

10:48 for Ari Emanuel to wipe out any remnants of Vince McMahon and the people associated with

10:54 him in the toxic culture that was created in WWE and existed for so many years.

11:01 Even Triple H was on the receiving end of heavy criticism over his response to the situation

11:06 in the post-Royal Rumble press conference.

11:09 Had he simply said that it was a legal matter and that he isn't allowed to discuss it

11:13 until it's all through, it would have been understandable.

11:18 But his response was to say that he didn't want to be "bogged down" by the negatives

11:24 and wanted to focus on the positives.

11:27 He described the week that WWE had as an amazing one because of the $5 billion Netflix deal

11:33 announcement, ignoring the fact that this was by far the most mainstream media coverage

11:38 that WWE received in 17 years and it wasn't for the Netflix deal, it was for the Vince

11:45 McMahon allegations.

11:48 To many, his response came off as tone deaf while others criticized him for not having

11:53 a prepared answer for the media.

11:56 Cody Rhodes addressed the situation too, but his answer was far more honest and authentic

12:01 and he didn't reply in a way that seemed to brush off serious allegations.

12:06 The issue with Triple H's comments about not wanting to be "bogged down" by the

12:10 negatives was that it was perceived as a way of sweeping Janelle Grant's alleged horrific

12:15 experiences under the rug and dismissing it as something he'd rather avoid.

12:21 This unfortunately isn't how the real world works and it's a shame that he replied the

12:26 way he did because it wasn't a good look for anybody in WWE

12:32 Another major issue with what Triple H said was that he, like everyone else, found out

12:38 about the lawsuit and allegations in real time.

12:42 But this doesn't match with the timeline of things.

12:45 In 2022, Triple H was still a board member of WWE and another former board member around

12:51 the same time named Jeff Speed, who was also responsible for the investigation against

12:56 McMahon, reached out to the media and said that he did in fact contact Janelle Grant's

13:02 lawyer, which means that all the board members had to have at least surface level knowledge

13:09 at minimum over the situation.

13:12 Ari Emanuel, the CEO of TKO and the boss of everyone in WWE and UFC, wasn't criticized

13:20 at first, but he hasn't been immune to it either.

13:24 The question has been asked about why he put McMahon in an executive board member position

13:29 if there was some knowledge of this situation.

13:33 He even filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission directly calling Vince

13:38 McMahon a liability to TKO due to his legal issues.

13:43 Now hopefully this is the wake up call that WWE needed to completely change the toxic

13:49 workplace culture that existed on the highest level.

13:52 It's tainted the image of WWE and many people who work there.

13:57 That's such a shame because many incredible people work in WWE on every level, whether

14:04 it's executives, superstars, the backstage crew, catering and more.

14:09 It's gonna be interesting to see how all of this plays out in real time and how it

14:14 could affect WWE's backstage culture forever.

14:19 Hopefully this will be the trigger for a positive change.

14:23 [MUSIC]

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