Vince McMahon’s legacy in the company he built from the ground up has taken a major blow, it’s not business as usual in the WWE, now a publicly traded company. A lot of dirty laundry is either being thrown away or coming to light.
None bigger than the recent charges brought against former WWE owner Vince McMahon and former WWE executive and according to many Vince’s right-hand man, John Laurinaitis. The ladder recently issued a statement where he accused McMahon of holding “Power, [and] control” over him and of making “dictatorial sexual demands with repercussions if not met.”
This all stems from a civil suit filed by former WWE employee Janel Grant, who according to her attorney was a sort of “prop” for McMahon and other WWE executives, talents, and even technicians, often used for sexual encounters where Grant was demeaned. Grant went on to state in the suit that she participated in a threesome with McMahon and Laurinaitis where McMahon on said occasion defecated on Grant’s head. The over 60-page suit has been made public and many former talents of the WWE did not hold back to voice their opinions about McMahon.
Former WWE talents talk about Vince McMahon
Speaking on “Kliq This” former WWE heavyweight champion Kevin Nash stated, “If these things were done to me by a 77-year-old man, I wouldn’t be looking for a payoff, I’d be looking for him to die in prison on criminal charges.”
Nash also made sure to iterate that “He’ll have his day in court and this thing will play out”, while also stating that McMahon looks like he has a pattern of behavior due to so many NDA’s he has had many women sign.
“If somebody is such a predator and so deadly, you lock that person up,” Nash finished.
Another talent that spoke out was Maria Kanellis who stated, “Many of us experienced or heard rumors of different levels of evil for years,” she said. “Some tried to speak up to build momentum to change the culture in WWE. Many times, we’ve been called bitter or crazy. Others have been paralyzed by fear.”
Former WWE wrestler Ashley Massaro’s lawyer stated that her former client’s WWE career was halted after rejecting Vince McMahon’s advances. Konstantine Kyros stated, “This doesn’t come as any surprise to followers of Vince or the WWE because the culture was toxic. So, the sexual exploitation was just part of the overall control. The wrestlers function in an in-group subculture, where they’re governed by a code of silence called kayfabe. And this basically prevents people from speaking out because they will lose their job, they will lose their livelihood.”
“In addition to these horrific allegations that she made, it’s important, I think, for your viewers to understand that the wrestlers have been exploited and injured for decades by McMahon. And she had very common orthopedic injuries. She had very serious injuries to her neck, where she had herniated discs. And this type of lack of any engagement with their health care, the health prices that wrestlers are in where they suffer these horrendous injuries and then they end up unfortunately, in some cases taking their own lives”, Kyros stated on the Banfield Podcast.
Ashley Massaro is reported as committing suicide on May 16, 2019 in Smithtown, New York.