On Wednesday, a judge accepted Janel Grant’s amended complaint to be allowed in her federal civil lawsuit. The lawsuit was amended in late January and included more details about the abuse she says that she endured from Vince McMahon.
Judge Sarah F. Russell was assigned to the case in early January after the previous judge was dealing with health concerns and later died. Russell also granted motions by Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and WWE to stay discovery in the case. They have until June 13 to refile motions to compel arbitration. Grant would have until July 11 to file an opposition in response.
I reached out for comment and representatives for Grant said, “We’re grateful that Judge Sarah Russell let the facts prevail today and granted our motion to amend Janel Grant’s complaint against Vince McMahon and WWE. The amended complaint is essential to understanding the extent of McMahon’s abuse and trafficking of Ms. Grant and the degree to which WWE failed her. We look forward to moving forward with Ms. Grant’s amended complaint and taking another step toward bringing the truth to light and ensuring Ms. Grant’s allegations against McMahon and WWE are taken seriously.”
In the amended lawsuit, Grant formally identified Brock Lesnar as the WWE Superstar that she says McMahon offered her to and details multiple attempts to traffick her. She also identified the corporate officers as WWE President Nick Khan, former WWE COO Brad Blum, Stephanie McMahon, and Brian Nurse, former head of WWE’s legal department.
Grant also alleges McMahon directed her to make sexual content for Michael Hayes and the crew under Hayes. Grant also alleges that a custom office was created for her that shared an office wall with current COO, Paul “Triple H” Levesque and had a badge lock installed outside the office door. It also had an internal door connecting directly to Laurnaitis’s office. This is just a sample of what is included in the amended lawsuit.
Other lawsuits against Vince McMahon and WWE
McMahon is also facing a lawsuit from shareholders. Shareholders believe that McMahon made a deal with Endeavor only because they would allow him to stay on as Executive Chairman. Endeavor is the parent company of UFC and they merged with WWE to create TKO Holdings. The case is currently in discovery and in a new filing, the plaintiffs state that McMahon is resisting turning over evidence related to sexual misconduct allegations. They believe this information is key to understanding his merger with UFC.
Last week, three new Ring Boys were added to the lawsuit filed last October. The amended lawsuit names McMahon, his wife Linda, WWE, and TKO. They say that the McMahons had a duty to protect them while in their care. They allege that they were sexually abused by the late Mel Phillips. Several also allege sexual abuse from the late Pat Patterson and Terry Garvin, respectively.
As of this writing, neither McMahon nor WWE have responded to Judge Russell’s ruling.