Vince McMahon, one of the founders of World Wrestling Entertainment, has resigned as executive chairman of TKO Group, WWE’s parent company, after a former employee accused him of sexual assault and sex trafficking.
McMahon left TKO on Friday, according to The New York Times. The Times also obtained an email from WWE president Nick Khan in which Khan told employees that McMahon “will no longer have a role with TKO Group Holdings or WWE.”
One day prior, a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut named McMahon, former WWE executive John Laurinaitis, and the WWE itself as defendants. That suit accused McMahon of trafficking ex-staffer Janel Grant and subjecting her to physical and emotional abuse. And one allegation in the suit claimed that McMahon and Laurinaitis had at one point taken turns raping her.
Grant alleged that McMahon and Laurinaitis pulled her behind a locked door, and that when she begged them to stop, one of them said, “No means yes,” CNN reports.
Her lawsuit seeks to “hold accountable two WWE executives who sexually assaulted and trafficked Plaintiff Janel Grant, as well as the organization that facilitated or turned a blind eye to the abuse and then swept it under the rug,” Ann Callis, the former staffer’s attorney, told CNN.
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McMahon released a statement after his resignation, calling the suit a “vindictive distortion of the truth” and saying that he was resigning “out of respect” for TKO, WWE, and its employees and talent, according to the Times.
The 78-year-old, who co-founded WWE with wife Linda, previously stepped away from the wrestling organization in 2022 as a special board committee investigated his conduct, per the Times. That committee found that McMahon had paid more than $14 million to women who had accused him of sexual misconduct, and another investigation found an additional $5 million that he’d paid two women.
Early last year, however, McMahon exerted his power as the WWE’s largest shareholder to install himself and two allies on the company’s board, and the company later merged with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to form TKO.
Following Grant’s lawsuit, longtime WWE sponsor Slim Jim distanced itself from the company. “Given the recent disturbing allegations against Vince McMahon, at this time we’ve decided to pause our promotional activities with WWE,” Slim Jim said in a statement to Deadline. “This decision reflects our commitment to our brand values and responsibility to our community.”
After McMahon’s resignation, however, Slim Jim resumed the sponsorship, saying that it had “decided to re-enter the Royal Rumble,” an WWE event happening today in Florida.
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
