By: John Pollock & Brandon Thurston
In a YouTube video on Monday, Lee Cole said that Linda McMahon has told people that her husband Vince McMahon’s health is declining. Vince McMahon’s attorney, though, denied to POST Wrestling and Wrestlenomics that the former WWE CEO is having any health problems.
“Vince’s health is fine.” Vince McMahon’s lawyer, Jessica Rosenberg, said in a statement on Thursday. “We have no idea where the rumor that he had health issues came from, but it is not true.”
Vince McMahon had spinal surgery just over a year ago, in July 2023, which WWE acknowledged on a subsequent earnings call. After recovering from surgery he was seen in October 2023 walking with a cane when he attended the Francis Ngannou vs. Tyson Fury fight in Saudi Arabia. McMahon’s most recent prominent public appearance was at the New York Stock Exchange on January 23.
Vince McMahon turns 79 later this month.
We sent a request for comment for this story to an email address believed to belong to Linda McMahon but have yet to hear back. We will update this report if she responds.
“Linda McMahon, somebody that her and I have in common, was talking to a person and telling them that her husband’s health is deteriorating fast,” Cole said in his video on Monday. In another video on Wednesday, he attributed this information to a person whose identity he promised not to reveal but who Cole says worked for the McMahons for seven years.
Cole also said in the video that he’s received legal threats because of his comments about Vince McMahon’s health. Cole hasn’t disclosed who he received those legal threats from.
We spoke with Cole by phone on Thursday, during which he expressed doubt that Vince McMahon could produce any evidence to support his lawyer’s assertion that his health is fine.
Lee Cole is the brother of the late Tom Cole, who worked as a ring attendant for the WWF in the 1980s and 1990s. Tom Cole alleged that when he was a minor he was sexually assaulted by ring announcer Mel Phillips and sexually harassed by then-WWF Vice President of Operations, Terry Garvin (real name, Terry Joyal). Other “ring boys”, including Chris Loss, also alleged they were abused by Garvin and Phillips. Wrestlers, too, like Barry Orton and Nick Kiniski, say they were targets of sexual harassment from Garvin.
Tom Cole passed away due to suicide in 2021.
Rosenberg, who is a partner at the Akin Gump law firm, is defending McMahon in the ongoing lawsuit Janel Grant filed against him in January.
