A woman has accused WWE co-founder Vince McMahon, the WWE and former company executive John Laurinaitis of sex trafficking, physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault and negligence in a lawsuit obtained by The Athletic.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut on Thursday and first reported by the Wall Street Journal, sheds more light on the investigations into McMahon’s misconduct, behavior that allegedly included millions in payments to women to keep quiet about their experiences with him. One of those women, Janel Grant, is the plaintiff in this new lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims Grant was introduced by a mutual friend to McMahon in the summer of 2019 amid her familial and financial trouble. McMahon offered her a job at WWE, which quickly became dependent on a sexual relationship with McMahon. Despite her initial pushback, Grant felt coerced into the relationship due to prospective employment and felt very quickly trapped in it, as McMahon warned of damage to her career and reputation if word got out.
“(I)n her years of experience with McMahon, she knew her requests to stop would be ignored at best or used to destroy her career and reputation at worst,” the lawsuit reads.
The relationship, which continued through January 2022, put…
