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A woman who received a payout from WWE boss Vince McMahon has accused McMahon, the company and a former executive of sex trafficking in a new lawsuit that raises questions about the breadth of an internal company probe conducted by a law firm last year.
Janel Grant, a former employee at WWE’s headquarters, said in a lawsuit filed Thursday that she was abused and sexually exploited by McMahon while he was chief executive. She alleged that McMahon lured her with promises of career advancement, and then he allegedly exploited her and trafficked her to other men inside the company.
Grant signed a nondisclosure agreement in 2022 in which McMahon agreed to pay $3 million for her to not discuss their relationship or to disparage him. The WWE received an anonymous tip in 2022 about the relationship and started a board investigation, whichuncovered other payments by the CEO to women. Grant’s lawsuit said McMahon stopped making payments under the 2022 deal after the initial $1 million installment. The suit seeks to void the agreement and unspecified financial damages.
The lawsuit, filed in a Connecticut federal court, describes in graphic detail Grant’s account of interactions with the businessman and TV personality. She alleged that McMahon and another WWE executive locked her in an office in WWE’s headquarters in Stamford, Conn., on June 15, 2021, and took turns sexually assaulting her while other staff were working.
In the middle of another workday, on June 23, 2021, McMahon locked Grant inside his private locker room at WWE’s offices and forced himself on her over a massage table, the suit said. Later that day, McMahon’s personal assistant delivered $15,000 in Bloomingdale’s gift cards to Grant in her office.
The suit also includes screenshots of explicit text messages that McMahon allegedly sent to Grant. A May 2020 message said: “i’m the only one who owns U and controls who I want to f— U.”
Meanwhile, McMahon allegedly sent her sexually explicit messages and his sexual demands increased. He forcefully used sex toys on her, including dildos he named after WWE wrestlers, causing her bruising and bleeding, the suit said. Grant alleged that she complained to McMahon and made attempts to end the relationship.
In March 2020, McMahon began sharing sexually explicit photographs and videos of Grant with other men, including other WWE executives and a former UFC heavyweight champion with whom WWE was actively trying to sign to a new contract, according to the suit. In a May 2020 encounter, McMahon defecated on her head during a threesome, the suit said.
Her mental and physical health deteriorated so badly that McMahon sent her in November to a celebrity doctor for sessions at an alternative clinic where she never received any receipts or bills. McMahon also paid $20,000 to a surgeon on her behalf, the suit said.
McMahon recruited people to have sex with Grant as well, including WWE’s former head of talent relations, John Laurinaitis, who is named as a defendant in the suit. McMahon directed her to visit Laurinaitis at his hotel rooms where she had sex with Laurinaitis prior to the start of workdays, the suit alleged. “I’ve left that hotel feeling bad about myself every time,” Grant told McMahon.
In May 2021, McMahon allegedly told Grant that her presence in the legal department was holding up the hiring of a new general counsel for the company and thus transferred her to the talent-relations department, reporting to Laurinaitis. McMahon and Laurinaitis started her in a lower-level position but promised that she would soon be promoted to vice president, the suit said.
McMahon controlled her professional and personal lives and subjected her to degradation, according to the suit. In the June 2021 encounter inside the WWE office, the suit said McMahon and Laurinaitis forced themselves on her and took turns restraining her for the other, while saying “No means yes” and “Take it, b—.”
Laurinaitis, a former wrestler known as Johnny Ace and a longtime WWE executive, left the company in 2022. Laurinaitis hasn’t publicly commented on his departure.
Laurinaitis didn’t immediately respond Thursday to requests for comment.
