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WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon speaks to an audience during a WWE fan appreciation event on October 30, 2010 in Hartford, Connecticut.
Jessica Hill/AP
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Jessica Hill/AP
WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon speaks to an audience during a WWE fan appreciation event on October 30, 2010 in Hartford, Connecticut.
Jessica Hill/AP
STAMFORD, Conn. – Wrestling icon Vince McMahon resigned from WWE’s parent company on Friday the day after a former employee filed a federal lawsuit accusing him and another former executive of serious sexual misconduct, including offering her to a star wrestler to have sex.
McMahon resigned from his position as executive chairman of the board of WWE’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings, according to a statement released Friday night. He continued to deny wrongdoing following the lawsuit filed by Janel Grant, who worked in the company’s legal and talent departments.
The lawsuit includes allegations that McMahon, now 78, forced Grant into a sexual relationship so she could get and keep a job and passed pornographic photographs and videos of her to other men, including other WWE employees.
The AP does not normally name accusers in sexual assault cases, but Grant’s representatives said she wanted to go public. Her attorney declined to comment Friday.
McMahon’s statement said he was leaving the board of directors “out of respect” for WWE and TKO Group.
“I stand by my previous assertion that Ms. Grant’s lawsuit is filled with lies, made-up obscene cases that never occurred, and is a vindictive distortion of the truth,” he said in the statement. “I intend to vigorously defend myself against these baseless allegations and look forward to clearing my name.”
McMahon resigned as WWE CEO in 2022 amid an investigation into allegations that match those in the lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, where WWE is headquartered.
McMahon was the leader and most recognizable face of WWE for decades. When he bought what was then the World Wrestling Federation from his father in 1982, wrestling matches were held in small venues and appeared on local cable channels. WWE matches are now held in professional sports stadiums and the organization has a considerable following abroad.
WWE merged last April with the company that runs the Ultimate Fighting Championship to create the $21.4 billion sports entertainment company TKO Group Holdings, and McMahon served as executive chairman of that group’s board of directors until Friday.
The TKO Group representative referred media inquiries about McMahon’s resignation to his statement. Deadline first reported that he was resigning.
“Mr. McMahon does not control TKO or oversee the day-to-day operations of WWE,” TKO Group said earlier this week. “While this matter predates our TKO executive team’s tenure at the company, we take Ms. Grant’s horrific allegations very seriously and are addressing this matter internally.”
Grant also names WWE and John Laurinaitis, a former professional wrestler and the company’s former head of talent relations and general manager, as defendants in the lawsuit. WWE and Laurinaitis did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.
According to the lawsuit, McMahon lived in the same building as Grant and in 2019 offered to get him a job with WWE after his parents died.
She alleges that he eventually made it clear that one of the job requirements was a physical relationship with him and later with Laurinaitis and others.
Over the next few years, McMahon lavished her with gifts, including a luxury car, the lawsuit says.
It also alleges that McMahon offered one of his star wrestlers, a person not named in the lawsuit, sex with Grant as a benefit in 2021.
“WWE financially benefited from the commercial sex acts enterprise orchestrated by McMahon, including by having wrestling talent, such as WWE Superstars, sign new contracts with WWE after McMahon presented the plaintiff as a sexual product. for your use,” the lawsuit states.
Grant is seeking unspecified monetary damages and for the court to void a $3 million nondisclosure agreement, from which she alleges she received only $1 million.
“Ms. Grant hopes her lawsuit will prevent other women from being victimized,” her attorney, Ann Callis, said in a statement Thursday. “The organization is well aware of Mr. McMahon’s history of depraved behavior, and it is time for them to take responsibility for his leadership’s misconduct.”