by Mike Johnson @ 9:13 AM on 1/26/2024
Some notes regarding the Vince McMahon and WWE lawsuit that was filed yesterday by former WWE employee Janel Grant based on questions PWInsider.com has received over the last 24 hours:
Jerry McDevitt was Vince McMahon's attorney for the NDA with Grant but no longer represents McMahon and has all but retired, so for those who asked, McDevitt would not be defending McMahon or even WWE here. McDevitt has not represented McMahon since he made the decision to come out his WWE retirement. In something that sounds absolutely insane, the NDA for Grant included a clause that if she needed a reference for future employment from WWE, she was directed to go to John Laurinaitis for the reference, which given the allegations in the suit, is mind-blowing, to say the least. One allegation in the lawsuit was that Grant claimed that no one spoke to her or utilized any documentation she had during the WWE Board of Directors investigation into Vince McMahon. PWInsider.com is told that investigation was conducted by a third-party, not WWE itself. While the Wall Street Journal has surmised the WWE talent Grant mentions in her lawsuit is Brock Lesnar, Lesnar is never named in the suit and is not a defendant in the lawsuit. WWE has not made, as of this writing, any internal statement to their employees about The Wall Street Journal article. The prevous WSJ articles all led to either a company meeting or a statement that was issued privately. Thus far, that has not been the case. As you can imagine, a lot of employees we've spoken to were really upset and disgusted with the allegations. As TKO Group Holding noted in their statement yesterday, Vince McMahon is not involved in the day to day operations of WWE anymore. As we have noted many times here during audio discussions in the Elite section, his current position is more of a ceremonial title at this point. Nick Khan and Paul Levesque are overseeing the company. It is not known whether TKO could force Vince McMahon to step down from his position as Executive Director of the TKO Board of Directors. The question to be answered is whether there is a morals clause in McMahon's contract with TKO and whether that could be a factor in his status going forward. There has been no public acknowledgment that the federal investigation into McMahon has ever closed, so yes, that is something that could come to the surface again, as far as anyone knows. The story has gotten a lot of attention and we are told that a lot of media outlets are starting work on their own coverage. The New York Times covered the story this morning. All the major entertainment trade publications covered it. The story won't go away overnight. Court records indicate that as of this morning, WWE, Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis all have yet to be served with the lawsuit.