Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque preferred to ‘focus on the positive’ rather than address a lawsuit of sexual assault and trafficking that was brought against his father-in-law and former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon this week – a lawsuit Levesque said he had not read.
McMahon resigned from his position as the TKO Group’s (WWE’s parent company) executive chairman of the board of directors on Friday evening after a lawsuit accusing the 78-year-old of sexual assault and trafficking was levelled against him.
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On Thursday, a report from the Wall Street Journal stated former WWE employee Janel Grant was suing McMahon on accusations of sexual misconduct. According to the report, Grant says McMahon began assaulting her soon after she joined the company in 2019.
According to the WSJ report, McMahon allegedly exposed himself to Grant on numerous occasions behind closed doors, forced himself on Grant during these encounters and not only assaulted her, but that he trafficked her to others within the company, allegedly including former head of talent relations, John Laurinaitis.
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The lawsuit claims that Laurinaitis also engaged in nonconsensual sexual activity with Grant. Laurinaitis left the company in 2022. It’s also alleged McMahon pressured Grant into remaining silent by offering gifts, such as $15,000 worth of gift cards.
Amid growing backlash from fans and sponsors it was announced that McMahon had resigned from his position.
Paul Levesque questioned over McMahon lawsuit
Speaking in a press conference after Saturday’s Royal Rumble Premium Live Event, WWE’s chief content officer and head of creative, as well McMahon’s son-in-law, Levesque was asked three questions about the lawsuit but wanted to ‘focus on the positive.’
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Levesque was first asked by Jon Alba how much he knew about allegations against McMahon and how they will impact WWE’s partnerships going forwards.
He said: “I’m gonna do exactly what you expect me to do here. Look, we just had an amazing week. Just signed a 10-year 5 billion dollar Netflix deal. Rock joining our board. We just sold out the Royal Rumble.
“Put 48,000 people in Tropicana Field. I choose to focus on the positive. Yes there’s a negative but I wanna focus on that and keep it to that.”
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When asked by Cam Hawkins what procedures are being put in place to stop employees being taken advantage of, he said: “I’ll give you the most generalized answer that I can. Everything possible. Yeah, and that is a very important thing to us, a very important topic to us. It’s as simple as everything possible.”
The only other question he was asked on the scandal came from Brandon Thurston, who asked if Levesque had read the lawsuit and what his reaction to it was: “I did not. I think Cody mentioned it, we all found out in real-time when you were. And that’s the truth… I’ll go back to what I said before. This is an amazing week.”
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Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes was also asked about McMahon and said: “Great question, I know as far as the news is concerned we were finding it out and reading the same thing that you guys were reading and he said a dark cloud…certainly.
“As far as TKO, Nick Khan and the board, clearly took it very seriously, acted immediately and looking at the future, you know I don’t know the answer to that and I think somewhere is really probably a basic tenant of just…this crew more than ever from a roster standpoint is very family, never seen anything like this, most of the time wrestling locker rooms are fighting talking trash, making fun of each other, sandbagging each other in the ring and all that nonsense.
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“This crew is very team-based and perhaps that’s the ingredient is everyone looking out for everyone — obviously as more news comes out we’ll be seeing it just like you do.”
McMahon released a statement to Deadline announcing his resignation on Friday night. It read: “I stand by my prior statement that Ms. Grant’s lawsuit is replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and is a vindictive distortion of the truth.
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“I intend to vigorously defend myself against these baseless accusations, and look forward to clearing my name.
“However, out of respect for the WWE Universe, the extraordinary TKO business and its board members and shareholders, partners and constituents, and all of the employees and Superstars who helped make WWE into the global leader it is today, I have decided to resign from my executive chairmanship and the TKO board of directors, effective immediately.”
