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Vince McMahon isnt having it. His legal team has officially moved to block Janel Grants attempt to amend her lawsuit against him, WWE, and John Laurinaitis, arguing that the changes are nothing more than a bad-faith publicity stunt.
According to Post Wrestling, McMahons attorneys filed their opposition in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut on Friday, stating that Grants request is untimely and an attempt to manipulate public perception.
Her filing is teeming with proposed additional allegations that were available to her when she filed her initial complaint and is a bad faith attempt to use this Courts docket to gain an advantage, wrote McMahons legal team, led by Jessica T. Rosenberg of the Akin Gump firm.
McMahons side argues that Grant has no legitimate reason for waiting this long to add these claims and that many of her so-called new allegations arent actually new at all. Instead, they say shes just recycling information she already had when she filed the lawsuit.
Grants legal team put out a press release at the same time they filed the amended complaint last month, which McMahons attorneys slammed as a tabloid-style move. The release claimed the lawsuit contained never-before-seen text and voice messages from McMahon that supposedly pull back the curtain on the dangerous workplace culture McMahon created at WWE.
McMahons lawyers pointed to previous statements from Grants attorney Ann Callis, who said during a media call last September:
Grant deserves to be portrayed as a survivor of human trafficking and sexual abuse. To that end, we recently brought on additional firepower through Kendra [Barkoff Lamy] and her team at SKDK.
McMahons side is making it clearthey believe Grants legal team is trying to win the case in the media rather than in court.
Grants lawsuit originally accused McMahon and Laurinaitis of sexual assault and trafficking, with WWE allegedly enabling the misconduct. Her amended complaint expanded from 67 pages to 101, adding multiple new claims, including:
- McMahon allegedly instructed her to create explicit content for WWE creative executive Michael Hayes.
- McMahon supposedly shared explicit images of her without her consent.
- McMahon allegedly tried to arrange a sexual encounter between Grant and Brock Lesnar during contract negotiations.
- Grant claims she was directed to undergo treatments at Dr. Carlon Colkers clinic, Peak Wellness, where she was prescribed substances without knowing what they were.
The lawsuit also now explicitly names WWE executives who were previously listed anonymously, including WWE President Nick Khan, former Chief Operating Officer Brad Blum, and former General Counsel Brian Nurse.
McMahons legal team is brushing all of these changes off, claiming they dont add anything substantial to the case and are just being used as a way to generate more media attention.
A major part of Grants lawsuit revolves around an NDA she signed in January 2022, which McMahons attorneys argue is irrelevant because she accepted the first $1 million payment from the agreement. By doing so, they claim, she effectively ratified the contract, making her claims of coercion invalid.
McMahons side also addressed the $400,000 fine and $1.3 million repayment ordered by the SEC, dismissing it as a procedural matter, not an admission of misconduct.
This latest filing comes shortly after a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling forcing McMahon to turn over documents to a grand jury. The ruling confirmed that prosecutors found probable cause that McMahon engaged in a scheme to bypass WWEs internal controls to hide NDA payments tied to sexual misconduct allegations.
Despite this, McMahons legal team insists the investigation is over and will not lead to criminal charges.
Judge Sarah F. Russell will now decide whether Grant can proceed with her amended complaint. If her motion is denied, the lawsuit will remain in its original form as filed in January 2024.
All three defendantsMcMahon, Laurinaitis, and WWEhave already attempted to move the case to private arbitration and are expected to refile those motions once a decision is made on the amended complaint.
Do you think Grants amended lawsuit should stand, or is McMahon right in calling it a PR move? Share your thoughts below.
Do you think Grants amended lawsuit should stand, or is Vince Mc Mahon right in calling it a PR move? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
