Lance Storm wants criminal charges for WWE’s Vince McMahon

Business

By Shannon Thaler

Retired WWE professional wrestler Lance Storm weighed in on “disgusting” claims that Vince McMahon sexually abused an employee, including with sex toys he named after wrestling stars, according to an explosive lawsuit filed Thursday.

“Look, I was one of the few who said he had to go when the story first broke,” Storm said of a Wall Street Journal report from 2022, when it was first revealed that WWE was investigating payments to several women who had reported sexual misconduct.

McMahon had briefly retired as WWE chairman and CEO in July 2022, but returned as executive chairman of TKO Group Holdings, WWE’s parent company, in January 2023.

“I was outspoken against being allowed to return to the office, being allowed to return to shows,” Storm told “Wrestling Observer Live” co-host Bryan Alvarez on Thursday, adding that he will boycott WWE programming when McMahon returns to an executive role in 2023. .

“That’s classic sexual predator stuff: finding someone down on their luck and starting to groom them and bend them to your will,” Storm added of the explosive demand filed in federal court in Connecticut this week, which names one of the women who allegedly received a payment from McMahon.

Janel Grant broke her silence in court documents, which revealed that McMahon’s use of sex toys caused her injuries such as bruising and bleeding.

In another shocking incident, the wrestling mogul allegedly defecated on Grant’s head during a threesome in May 2020, and sex-trafficked her to other WWE executives, according to the complaint.

“This is absolutely disgustingly horrible and needs to be taken down and put to an end, and I hope criminal charges are filed if any of this is even remotely true,” Storm said.

“With so many NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) and a long list of things, I can’t understand how it’s not like that,” added Storm, 54, who retired from the ring in 2004.

In light of the allegations, Storm, who now works as a producer for TNA Wrestling, added that “he (McMahon) will be kicked off the board, his office keys will be taken away (and) he will be banned from going to shows.”

“I think there needs to be a legitimate cleaning of the house of anyone who covered anything up, who knows about this.”

John Laurinaitis, WWE’s former head of talent relations, is named as a defendant in the lawsuit after allegedly being recruited by McMahon to have sex with Grant.

McMahon told Grant to visit Laurinaitis in his hotel rooms, where she had sex with him before work, according to the lawsuit.

In another encounter at WWE headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, in June 2021, McMahon and Laurinaitis forced themselves on her and took turns holding each other down, the lawsuit alleges.

“No means yes” and “Take it, bitch” were some of the things McMahon and Laurinaitis said to Grant during the alleged assault, according to court documents.

Despite allegations of sexual misconduct involving McMahon dating back at least three years, WWE has said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that while government investigations into McMahon remain ongoing, they do not charges have been filed.

And although WWE formed a “special committee” to review the allegations against McMahon in 2022, it concluded in November of that year.

McMahon said in a statement at the time: “Throughout this experience, I have always denied any intentional wrongdoing and continue to do so. “I am confident that the government investigation will be resolved without any irregularities being found.”

Social media users, however, do not seem so convinced.

In response to Storm’s comments on the wrestling news-focused radio show, many agreed that “Vince has to go.”

“Vince is a very sick monster. Get it out now! another wrote, while a user named Matt Cruz warned that “getting rid of them all is a lot easier said than done.”

“Vince is so powerful that accomplices could easily say they were forced or risk losing their livelihood,” Cruz warned.