Janel Grant Speaks About Lawsuit Against Vince McMahon & WWE, Says WWE Asked Her To Say Relationship Was Consensual

Janel Grant spoke about her lawsuit against Vince McMahon and WWE on Friday, speaking at length about the NDA at the center of the lawsuit and the fallout from the news article disclosing the story. As you likely know, Grant, a former employee of WWE, suied McMahon, WWE, and John Laurinaitis in January of 2024. Grant accused McMahon of sexual abuse, assault and trafficking. The lawsuit resulted in McMahon resigning from TKO and WWE shortly after.

Grant’s lawsuit came after the Wall Street Journal reported in July of 2022 that McMahon had agreed to pay four women a total of $12 million to settle allegations of sexual misconduct. Grant was one of the women and her situation led at the time to an investigation by WWE’s Board of Directors. McMahon initially stepped back from the company following that report hitting in a “retirement,” but forced his way back into the company in 2023 to faciliate its sale which eventually went to Endeavor.

Grant spoke at the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence on Friday about her experiences, particularly around the NDA that she signed. Grant says that she was coerced to sign the deal; the NDA is at the center of WWE and McMahon’s attempts to take the matter into arbitration as designated by the NDA. Laurinaitis was dropped from the lawsuit in May of last year and is cooperating with Grant’s legal team.

During her speech, Grant spoke about how the Wall Street Journal report upended her life, as she was in a new job. She ntoed that WWE asked her when the news broke to issue a joint statement describing the relationship as consensual and that when she refused, WWE responded to a second WSJ article describing the relationship as such.

Grant also noted that “reporters and viewers” noticed parallels with a storyline on WWE TV in the summer of 2024. While she does not mention the storyline, a number of fans online at the time suggested that Liv Morgan’s storyline with Dominik Mysterio had parallels, specifically in Morgan “sending nude photos” to Mysterio which he showed to other Judgment Day members. McMahon is alleged to have ordering Grant to send him sexually explicit videos that he showed to other WWE employees.

Grant’s lawsuit is currently awaiting a ruling on the arbitration clause. That hearing has been agreed to by all parties for a June hearing.

You can see highlights from Grant’s comments below, courtesy of Fightful and F4W Online:

On Finding Out That She Was Going To Be Outed By the Report:

“I really shouldn’t be here. By a series of miracles that I can’t account for, I’m alive today. On June 15 2022, my life was rewritten into someone else’s storyline, and I was globally outed by the Wall Street Journal… [I found out] at any minute, the Wall Street Journal would be publishing a story about me, Vince McMahon, and a non-disclosure agreement. I was told if anybody asks me about this, I can’t make a comment, I can’t acknowledge it, I can’t say I’m not okay, and if anybody approached me, I can’t acknowledge years of life to anybody who saw me live it.”

On Workplace NDAs Hiding Dangerous Behavior:

“Workplace safety depends on transparency. When employees cannot speak, patterns can’t be seen. When patterns can’t be seen, they can’t be stopped. When they can’t be stopped, harm spreads. When an NDA is used to conceal dangerous behavior, it simply relocates the harm to the next employee, the next office, the next victim. No one should be required to trade silence for accountability and no workplace should be safer for the institution than the people inside.”

On the NDA Being Used to Silence Her:

“There are five intersections associated with the NDA; a federal criminal investigation by the DOJ, an SEC investigation, a shareholder suit, a second circuit decision, and my civil suit. The NDA was a tool that Vince could use to justify anything while I remained a victim of exploitation, and in a position for anyone to exploit me.”

On WWE Asking Her to Say It Was a Consensual Relationship:

“The company reached out and requested that I make a joint statement that this was a consensual relationship and that they wanted to know this to the extent that I needed or wanted something, aka more money on the table. I refused… Leaving out one half of an experiencing party on a decision like that is not consent.”

On a WWE Spokesperson Describing the Relationship As Consensual:

“So someone, a group maybe, behind my back, without my knowledge, without my input, made that decision for me, it’s consensual, we say so.”

On Her Involvement In WWE’s Investigation:

“That summer, I spent six figures to participate in their investigation on legal retainers and medical care that saved my life. I preserved my evidence, and I believed I would be interviewed for this investigation and would get my life back. Then, the feds reached out ahead of speaking with me. I was onboarding a new legal team. We gave them my evidence and said to review it in advance. Based on that objective review of hard evidence, communication with people across the company including leadership then and now, that this was now a covert investigation into human trafficking and the criminal misconduct of WWE, Vince McMahon, and this NDA.”

On the Timing Of WWE’s Acquisition By Endeavor:

“In March of 2023, I got two things from the SEC. I got a subpoena, and I got whistleblower status. A couple days after that, Vince McMahon and Ari Emanuel suddenly appeared on CNBC to announce a deal of Endeavor and WWE, so color me the most surprised person on planet Earth.”

On Other People Being Afraid To Talk:

“There are people living and working in fear in Connecticut and there is a headquarters in Stamford full of intimidated people that I care about… In September 2023, the company paid for my participation in the investigation. I was out six figures. If anyone postures like this isn’t serious, they spent serious money on it.”

On Parallels With a WWE Storyline On TV:

“And in the summer of 2024, reporters and viewers noticed there were parallels between the storyline that unfolded for several months on television and my situation… Does it look like we work in a safe environment, when the destination point if you’re hurt is weaponized use of your experience on live TV every Monday night for months? By their actions and reactions, that says a lot more about current leadership than it does about me.”

On Being Hesitant to File the Lawsuit:

“I knew what I would be about to throw my life into, but I had been dragged in by this NDA into a federal investigation, the SEC, all the consequences, all the things that have happened that have made my life so small and isolated, I didn’t start that. It’s like it found me.”

On Her Message To TKO’s Board of Directors:

“To the board of TKO, if you didn’t know this part of your origin story, now you know. I hope you will have conversations with us. I will hope you have conversations amongst yourselves, and I hope that you don’t rely on old instincts with new insight. All of you have some say in how my life turns out from here, including how quickly I may be able to move on and find help and healing.”

If you know someone who is being abused, or if you yourself a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Call 1-800-656-4673 to be connected with the National Sexual Assault Hotline.