The time has come for this billionaire to face the consequences of his depraved actions
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Managing Editor
I’m a wrestling fan, and I get mocked about that a lot – both to my face, and likely behind closed doors. My mom never cared much for my wrestling fandom, and she’s not about to start now. She even once gave me a tape that exposed all of the secrets of how the business worked. I was 8 years old, and she tried very hard to get me to like something else. But my dad and I loved watching it together, and when he died, I kept watching. It’s a way to stay connected with him even though he’s somewhere up in the sky, probably watching Dusty Rhodes cut a promo on Jesus Christ.
But this month especially, I’ve been embarrassed to call myself a fan of wrestling, and particularly the WWE. Unfortunately, it’s not for the reasons my mom was hoping for. Instead, it’s due to the depraved actions of the man who revolutionized the company and the business at large.
In a 67-page court filing that became public on the day it was published, Vince McMahon permanently entered a space only reserved for one other person in the wrestling business. That person, by the way, is Chris Benoit, who murdered his entire family and then killed himself back in 2007.
Vince didn’t personally kill anybody (as far as anyone knows), but what he did is no less serious. McMahon is accused of rape, assault and sex trafficking by a former employee, Janel Grant. While this is a civil suit, McMahon is now confirmed to also be under federal investigation as a result of Grant’s claims.
The details within the filing are explicit, obscene and horrific. I’m fairly sure I can’t print them in a college publication without alienating and triggering some of our readers. The dirty details are very much vomiting-inducing and triggering at multiple points. So I won’t recount any graphic details.
But I’ll say this. It’s very strange finally seeing the walls close in on McMahon. As a wrestling fan, I’d like to think I’m more privy to his activities than anyone else who follows the mainstream scene. I’ve heard countless crazy stories about him throughout the last 20 years of my fandom. McMahon himself rarely does interviews, but everyone else he’s worked with has tons of stories about him. There’s the time he almost killed one of his show writers during a drag race in a parking lot. There’s his strange fascination with AC/DC. Then there’s his weird quirks like hating sneezing, or not knowing what a burrito is despite eating at least one everyday.
But I also knew McMahon could be capable of some shady stuff. It’s very likely he even paid off the cops in Allentown, Pennsylvania to cover up a murder in 1983, for example. But it’s hard to solely take the word of others; there’s no real substantial proof of almost anything he’s done, unless he’s testifying in court (it’s happened a couple of times). It makes it easier to look the other way.
Now, there’s proof. A lot of it. And there’s no looking the other way anymore.
To be fair, maybe I should have seen this coming. Vince’s childhood was a bit of a mystery until Abraham Reisman’s RINGMASTER was published last March, but he did speak about his relationship with his mother in a 2001 Playboy interview, where he hinted at being sexually abused by her. And even on television, Vince would often put himself in compromising positions with numerous women on his roster. In a clip from 2003 that feels even more icky now than it did back then, his daughter Stephanie accused him of pimping her out while underage to help close business deals.
To make it very clear, I don’t care that McMahon, a married man, had affairs. It’s deplorable, but that’s his business, and it’s very clear he hasn’t actually been with his wife for well over a decade and that they’re only still married on paper for financial reasons.
But it’s entirely plausible, if not automatically assumed that Janel Grant was not the first victim of McMahon. She’s just the one that had enough courage to stand up for herself and take him down. It’s been confirmed that the relationship with Grant was indeed what led to McMahon’s forced exile from the company in July 2022, but it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Grant wasn’t the only person that Vince and company had forced into an NDA. As a matter of fact, this wasn’t even the largest NDA that McMahon has written up. Far from it, actually.
The rot isn’t removed by his departure either, and he likely won’t be the last man exiled. There are others who knew about this, and others who were directly involved alongside McMahon.
A large financial settlement with Grant, if that was to happen, and statements from her lawyer (a local attorney based out of Madison County, Illinois) indicate that it won’t, may not be enough to save McMahon. That’s because, as stated previously, in addition to this civil suit, McMahon is also being federally investigated for his crimes.
He has beaten the federal government in court before; they previously attempted to take him down for distributing steroids in 1994, and failed because their case against him was flawed. This case, however, seems open-and-shut. Thirty years later, the feds will get their man, and he could very well end up behind bars this time.
Even so, viewing the product on TV and in person is now a very strange experience. The product itself is arguably better than it’s ever been, and the company is in a better position now than it’s ever been financially.
But none of that matters with this dark cloud hanging over the proceedings, and it makes it hard to watch despite how solid everything feels on-screen. Even this week, the company’s flagship show RAW was in town, and the show went off without a hitch for the most part, but that dark cloud is still there. People in the Enterprise Center were talking about it.
I don’t know how long that dark cloud will linger, or if it will ever truly go away. I don’t know who else’s head will be on the chopping block. But I do know that Vince McMahon is gone, hopefully never to be seen again, and that is a great first step.
