In the weeks following a disturbing sex trafficking lawsuit being filed against Vince McMahon, many questions are still without answers. Even looking past the major ideas that we likely won’t know the answers to for some time—namely what the outcome of the case could look like—there are so many details to the lawsuit that simply aren’t known too well so far.
Potential responses to the lawsuit remain on the mind of Todd Martin, a legal expert who writes for PWTorch. Particularly the response that the lawsuit could garner from possible victims who haven’t gone public with their stories before, and the response from McMahon himself.
McMahon hasn’t said much since a lawsuit in January alleged that he trafficked and abused WWE staffer Janel Grant. Apart from a brief statement that said he would “vigorously defend himself,” it hasn’t been clear what his response to the case could be.
Martin wonders what path McMahon will take with the lawsuit: Will he try to settle and end this case as quickly as possible, or will he attempt to defend himself in court and clear his name?
“I’m curious what Vince McMahon’s mentality in this is,” Martin said on a recent episode of Pollock & Thurston. “Is his mentality going to be, ‘Yeah make this thing go away, throw some money at her, and let’s just be done with this.’ Or is his mentality going to be, ‘This woman has decimated my reputation and I want to push back as much as I can to try to put out my side of the story such as it is.’”
Martin contemplated the idea that McMahon might not be too concerned with his image. “I think he’s someone that has been used to playing the villain role for such a long time that he’s more content to be himself and sort of say what he thinks,” Martin said. As someone who has unashamedly portrayed himself as a villain both on screen, he might not care about how the public perception of him could change due to the lawsuit. However, “nobody wants to be framed the way that he was in the context of this lawsuit,” Martin admitted.
What McMahon will say in reaction to the case isn’t the only possible response that Martin is interested in. He is also curious to see whether other victims of McMahon could come out following the graphic allegations made by Grant.
Martin explained that there may be more incentive to speak out now after McMahon left his positions in WWE and TKO following the lawsuit.
“As this becomes more public and as Vince McMahon has decreased power—no power at this point within the industry—do we see more people coming forward and how does that complicate things in terms of this story?”
It has been demonstrated before that substantial allegations levied against a powerful figure can empower others to speak out regarding their own experiences. The specific use of the term “MeToo” in the MeToo movement is used to signify how sexual assault survivors aren’t alone with their stories, either with specific people or more generally.
In the case of disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein, allegations of sexual harassment from actresses in a 2017 New York Times piece started a snowball effect that caused more than one hundred other women to eventually step forward with stories of their own. While there’s no guarantee that other allegations could emerge following Grant’s lawsuit, it’s something that Martin has been curious to learn about.
Apart from the responses from both other possible victims and McMahon, Martin has one more main question that he’s currently focused on: Will the lawsuit uncover how much of McMahon’s alleged actions were potentially covered up by the WWE?
When looking at the details in the initial filing for the lawsuit, it could be argued that there is a specific effort to explain how the damage that Grant suffered was not just at the hands of McMahon and Laurinaitis, but also due to a company that was complicit in the process.
In the case, it is alleged that Grant was ordered to create sexual videos for Brock Lesnar, whom the company was trying to lure for a new contract. When a new deal was cut for Lesnar, McMahon told him that sex with Grant was part of the agreement. This was one of the ways that the lawsuit attempted to show how the mistreatment of Grant was baked into the business practices of the company.
Last week, a report from Front Office Sports identified WWE President Nick Khan and COO Brad Blum as unnamed “Corporate Officers” in the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged that Khan and Blum “covered up exploitation in ways that make WWE liable under federal anti-trafficking law,” the report wrote.
“There’s so much of a focus on not just Vince McMahon’s actions, but the company’s actions,” Martin said. “How they responded to it, their awareness of it, the fact that it was tied into the Brock Lesnar contract talks. They want to tie this into the WWE in a way to say that you can’t separate what Vince McMahon was doing from what the company was doing.”
While a large amount of attention has been directed toward McMahon since the lawsuit was filed in January, details from the case make it sound as if it could be an indictment of WWE’s practices in general. While the lawsuit has a large focus on the disturbing alleged actions of McMahon and Laurinaitis, it could also be a story of corruption.
“That’s the danger of absolute power in any context,” Martin said. “When you’ve got power very much concentrated at the very top, it leads to corruption and lack of checks and balances.”
