Vince McMahon Resigns from WWE/UFC Parent Company Following Sexual Abuse and Trafficking Allegations

Mar. 15, 2025

Vince McMahon at the New York Stock Exchange on January 23, 2024.Photo:Michelle Farsi/Zuffa LLC

Michelle Farsi/Zuffa LLC

Vince McMahon has resigned as executive chairman of WWE/UFC’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings, effective immediately.

His resignation comes a day afterformer WWE employee Janel Grant sued McMahon, the WWE, and former senior vice president of talent relationsJohn Laurinaitis, claiming that she experienced “physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault and trafficking” while working at the company.

“However, out of respect for the WWE Universe, the extraordinary TKO business and its board members and shareholders, partners, and constituents, and all of the employees and Superstars who helped make WWE into the global leader it is today, I have decided to resign from my executive chairmanship and the TKO board of directors, effective immediately,” the statement continued.

Vince McMahon at a WWE Wrestlemania 29 press conference.Michael N. Todaro/Getty

Michael N. Todaro/Getty

McMahon had previouslystepped down as chairman and CEO of the WWEin June 2022 andannounced his retirement a month after, amidan investigationinto allegations hepaid a former employee $3 millionto hide their affair.

The investigationclosed in November 2022, and McMahon was “unanimously” elected executive chairman of the board in January 2023," per apress release. When the WWE and UFCmerged in September to create TKO Group Holdings, McMahon was appointed executive chairman.

Vince McMahon during a news conference on January 8, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada.Ethan Miller/Getty

Ethan Miller/Getty

Grant alleges that McMahon “pushed” her “for a physical relationship in return for long-promised employment at WWE.” She alleges to have been hired as an entry-level employee for the WWE’s legal department in June 2019 after “succumbing to the pressure for a physical relationship.”

The complaint alleges that McMahon began “sharing sexually explicit photographs and videos” of Grant in March 2020 with “other men both inside and outside the company” and that “coercion was inherent in his increasingly depraved sexual demands.”

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“McMahon recruited individuals to have sexual relations with Ms. Grant and/or with the two of them, directed Ms. Grant to visit Defendant Laurinaitis prior to the start of workdays for sexual encounters, and expected and directed Ms. Grant to engage in sexual activity at the WWE headquarters, even during working hours,” the complaint reads.

It details the alleged physical interactions, which she described as “acts of extreme cruelty and degradation.” After McMahon’s wife Linda found out about their relationship in January 2022, Grant was fired and signed an NDA “in exchange for payments,” which the complaint states McMahon later “stopped making.” He allegedly tried to “traffic” her to a WWE star even after she had left the company in March 2022.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.

source: people.com