More news has come out about Vince McMahon and he reported sexual abuse of former employees. He previously got into hot water after it was revealed that he paid a former employee millions of dollars after engaging a sexual relationship with a paralegal and promoting her because of it.
She later signed an NDA with a substantial pay-out. While Vince McMahon stepped down as CEO of WWE, he seemed to have weathered the storm. He continues to be the head of creative at WWE and even appeared on Smackdown immediately after the allegations.
However, over the last few days even more information has come out that could ruin McMahon and send him packing from the WWE. The Wall Street Journal (article behind a paywall) has reported that four more women have come forward, claiming to have signed a non-disclosure agreement after engaging in a sexual relationship with the Chairman of WWE.
It was reported that McMahon paid out over $12 million in “hush money” to multiple women over the past 16 years. This included the women signing NDA’s to not speak about the alleged behaviour, but they have come out now after the story of the WWE paralegal came out last month.
This huge pay-out includes a $7.5 million fee to one former WWE wrestler. The woman, who was not named in the WSJ article, was reportedly paid the huge sum after being released by WWE. The wrestler was said to have been coerced by Vince McMahon into performing oral sex on him. After refusing to continue to perform sexual acts on McMahon, she was eventually demoted and released in 2005 after she resisted further sexual encounters.
The victim approached man in 2018 about the events and received a $7.5 million pay-out to keep quiet about the affair. 3 other women with similar tales make up the rest of the $4.5 million fees.
Vince McMahon has stepped down as CEO of WWE, with his daughter Stephanie McMahon taking over the reigns of his company. McMahon still retains his role at the helm of WWE creative and has been active backstage in WWE since the allegations came out.
He appeared on Smackdown immediately after the allegations came out, cutting a short promo and without reference to the situation that had recently been uncovered. Fans were happy to see McMahon, cheering him despite everything that was revealed in the days prior.
It has been reported by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful that McMahon did not seem to take the threats to him losing his role in the company seriously. He reported that when Vince McMahon appeared on Smackdown after the sexual abuse allegations, he yelled “FUCK EM” before carrying out his day as the head of WWE.
Sapp has also revealed that he thinks that it is time from Vince McMahon to step down from WWE, with his position now becoming untenable as more and more women’s allegations become public. However, the WWE board have admitted “to investors that the success of the company hinges on McMahon’s standing as its leader.”
McMahon also owns the majority of the stock and voting rights in WWE and there would be no way for the board to vote him out of his role. The only way would be for Vince McMahon to leave the company voluntarily, something which is incredible unlikely to happen.
Vince McMahon Netflix Documentary
While McMahon has faced little consequence for his actions thus far, there has been one negative for him in this situation.
The Vince McMahon Netflix documentary, currently untitled and produced by Netflix themselves, has been put on the shelf as more evidence of McMahon’s misconduct has become clearer to the general public.
Journalist Denise Salcedo claimed on Twitter that “Sources tell me that the Vince McMahon Netflix documentary has been pulled & is off the programming spreadsheet at Netflix. A source at Netflix confirmed it no longer being listed on their spreadsheet, another source at Netflix said “that shit’s out of here.”
She then added that “Another source indicated that the project was already “deep” in post-production & that several talent interviews had been done months ago & that millions were spent. I spoke to one of the producers on the project, however they declined to confirm nor deny this story to me.“
The fact the show was “deep in post production” and had “several talent interviews” completed already means that Netflix are taking these sexual abuse claims serious. It is also implies that the tone for the show was very light and pro-Vince McMahon, which was always likely due to how much control McMahon had over the narrative for the Vince McMahon Netflix Documentary.
Former WWE star Mickie James commented on the situation. Referencing the former WWE Superstar who was released for refusing to perform oral sex on Vince McMahon, she humerously added “No wonder I never got that raise…” with a GIF of herself in a WWE looking bemused saying “WHAT?”.
Vince ur a no good piece of trash what in the world u thinking u should be ashamed of urself I’m not apologing to u and u had no business treating shawn micheals how u did u treated him like trash and he didn’t deserve it I saw Un my town and I owe u no apology u also posted ur dead and ur not u need to grow u u sicko