I was going to do this post in the Pro-wrestling thread, but chose to move it to a separate post to avoid the topic dominating the other thread. Also, in politics, because Linda McMahon (Vince's wife) was part of Donald Trump's cabinet, and Vince McMahon and Donald Trump are friends and (at least former) business associates - Vince has paid millions to Trump organizations and Trump has worked for WWE in the past. Vince McMahon is worth about 3 billion USD.

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This story has been developing for a while, but the further it goes, the dirtier it gets. And it’s not just a wrestling storyline anymore. The world found out that Vince McMahon is an unscrupulous POS when he continued the 1999 show after Owen Hart died in the ring. Most didn’t care. But now, more people are showing concern because they have discovered that his unscrupulousness goes far beyond what most initially thought.

For a bit of background on Vince McMahon. He broke into the wrestling industry. His father (Vince McMahon Sr) was already a powerful man in pro wrestling, and owner of the WWWF (would rebrand to WWF under Vince Jr). Vince McMahon then, from his New England/New York territory, conquered all the other territories in the US and Canada, and in 2001, purchased the last two remaining major federations in North America (WCW and ECW). Vince McMahon more or less owned the whole Western world wrestling industry until a few months ago.

Part of the decline resulted from the rise of the UFC - because there are two types of wrestling fans, those that are there for the show and the stories, and those who get into the mindset that it’s a real thing (Marks, are those that think it’s real, and Smart Marks, “Smarks”, are those that pretend it’s real but know it’s not). In 2023, WWE and parent company of the UFC formed a new company (TKO) that would be the overall parent company of the WWE and UFC with The Rock (Dwayne Johnson’s) childhood friend, Ari Emanuel as CEO, and Vince McMahon as the Chairman of the Board, as well as the company’s largest shareholder.

Why would Vince do this?

You’ll hear many theories from ex-WWE employees and their podcasts. The one that seems to be prevalent is that he would get people involved in the scandal so that he could control them.

Did Vince McMahon play out some of the backstage nonsense in his on-screen product?

Most people interested have heard of the Janel Grant sex trafficking and rape allegations, but this is just the latest in decades of allegations against him. Vince, being a powerful man in the media, had all this stuff swept under the rug from the time it was first revealed over 30 years ago. Victims we know about include:

* Ring Boys in the 1980s and 1990s surrounding McMahon associates
* Former referee Rita Charlton in the 1980s who reported that Vince McMahon raped her in 1986 after attempting to force her to perform oral sex on him
* Ashley Massaro in 2006 suffered career sabotage after she rejected Vince McMahon’s advances, she killed herself in 2019.
* Spa workers accused McMahon of sexual assault in 2006 and 2011
* Suspected 19.6 million USD in hush money payments for sexual misconduct claims between 2006 and 2022

The video below covers the details on these and everything I’ve been talking about:

This is what’s listed on Wikipedia, and this is more than likely just the tip of the iceberg, according to other people who have worked for Vince McMahon in the past.

Associates of Vince McMahon, famous for their own sexual assault allegations include Pat Patterson, Terry Garvin, and The Fabulous Moolah, who worked on and off for Vince McMahon for decades, from the time he inherited the company from his father (Vince Sr) until their deaths by old age (Garvin in 1998, Moolah at 84 in 2007, and Patterson at 79 in 2020).

Former WWF Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino and Barry Orton (uncle of Randy Orton) challenges Vince McMahon on Larry King in 1992.

Rita Chatterton in 1992 on Geraldo about her sexual assault by Vince McMahon - note. The story got never saw any serious action, and it fell into obscurity. But this was before all this new information came out.

Earlier this year, when the allegations were out, lawyers (representing Janel Grant) released text messages, and sued Vince. Vince McMahon stepped down as Chairman of the board of TKO and has sold 1.5 billion USD worth in stock, which takes his amount down to 5%.

Vince McMahon has slithered away from the law for decades now. It doesn’t look like he’s getting away from it again. A Federal investigation was launched in February.

How is this guy not in jail.