From the Most Vince McMahon Thing Ever Department, we have a report from Puck’s Matthew Belloni that McMahon wanted to purchase the rights to the upcoming documentary series on his life that is set to air on Netflix, to try to bury it before anybody could see it.
McMahon, the former owner and CEO of WWE, before revelations about his use of company money to try to keep sexual-harassment allegations quiet made their way into the public domain, wrote in a statement on Twitter on Monday that the producers of the series used “out of context footage and dated soundbites” to “distort the viewers’ perception and support a deceptive narrative.”
“In an attempt to further their misleading account, the producers use a lawsuit based on an affair I ended as evidence that I am, in fact, ‘Mr. McMahon,’” McMahon wrote, referencing his on-screen heel character, which the documentary series, produced by Chris Smith and Bill Simmons, makes the case was actually much more real-life than McMahon had publicly let on.
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The “lawsuit based on affair” is a reference to the lawsuit filed by former WWE employee Janel Grant, alleging that McMahon and his former top deputy, John Laurinaitas, forced her into sex acts and the production of sexualized content that was used to recruit “a former UFC Heavyweight Champion,” identified by the Wall Street Journal as Brock Lesnar, to re-sign with the company.
The suit lists McMahon and Laurinaitas as co-defendants, and in addition to seeking unspecified monetary damages, also asks the court to release Grant from an NDA that she signed while still employed with WWE.
The lawsuit was just the latest round of fire at McMahon, who I have to mention here, for my local readers, has ties to Waynesboro – McMahon is a 1964 graduate of Fishburne Military School, and as an alum has been a generous benefactor to the private prep school – regarding his sexual dalliances.
McMahon was still the CEO of WWE when he stepped down under fire in the summer of 2022, after the Wall Street Journal reported about an investigation by the company’s board of directors into alleged hush-money payments to women who had accused him of sexual misconduct.
Details soon emerged about how McMahon had made payments totaling $19.6 million dating back to 2007 related to alleged sexual misconduct.
McMahon returned to his CEO position six months later to lead the effort to find a buyer, leading to the blockbuster merger with UFC under the TKO Group Holdings umbrella, which created a sports-entertainment company valued initially at $21 billion, to be headed up by McMahon as the executive chairman of the board.
McMahon was forced out of that role in the fallout from the Grant lawsuit, which the six-part Netflix series, titled “Mr. McMahon,” will cover in the final episode.
The entirety of the “Mr. McMahon” series drops on Wednesday on Netflix.
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Chris Graham
