Vince McMahon is a horny old man

[Greggulator]

Just saw the headline. If the WSJ is covering something, they are covering something. Now let me read this thing.

[Matt D]

It’s @Bix’s moment to seize his destiny. He shall never have another. 

[Technico Support]

Holy shit this covers wrestlers, too.

Quote

The previously unreported settlements include a $7.5 million pact with a former wrestler who alleged that Mr. McMahon coerced her into giving him oral sex and then demoted her and, ultimately, declined to renew her contract in 2005 after she resisted further sexual encounters, according to people familiar with the matter.

Now I need to go see who was released in 05.

Hey, let's quote Vince's best pal here!

Quote

And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything.

 

Edited July 8, 2022 by Technico Support

[Greggulator]

The highlights:

* $7.5 million to a former wrestler whose contract was not renewed in 2005 after she allegedly resisted further sexual encounters.

* $1 million to a contractor who said Vince sent her nudes and sexually harassed her. "Contractor" can mean many things. This was in 2008.

* $1 million to a former manager in a deal signed in 2006. 

[Loki]

2 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Holy shit this covers wrestlers, too.

Now I need to go see who was released in 05.

From Chris Harrington's old site: : Christian, Charlie Haas, Jackie Gayda, Mark Jindrak, Rhyno, Spike Dudley, Molly Holly, Luther Reigns, Maven, D-Von Dudley, Bubba Ray Dudley, Muhammad Hassan, Kenzo Suzuki, Dawn Marie, Christy Hemme, Matt Morgan, Lance Storm, Jackie Gayda, Joey Matthews, Chris Jericho, Akio, Eddie Guerrero (died)

 

[(BP)]

*Exaggerated head bobbing nervous swallowing intensifies*

[Greggulator]

And:

Additionally, the board is looking at a $1.5 million nondisclosure agreement reached in 2012 with an employee involving misconduct claims against Mr. Laurinaitis, these people said.

[(BP)]

It’s really weird that the Bellas were cool with Johnny Ace getting with their mom. Unless they thought he’d be less of a nuisance to women at work. 

[Greggulator]

Quote

 

The former paralegal to whom Mr. McMahon agreed to pay $3 million was brought into the company as a legal assistant in 2019, according to people familiar with the matter. She never applied for the job, these people said. Mr. McMahon had met her at his Stamford, Conn., condo building, where both were living, the people said.

WWE placed her in the legal department because the woman’s resume said she had attended law school, the people said. The woman often talked with colleagues in the department about her close relationship with Mr. McMahon, the people familiar with the matter said. The talk about Mr. McMahon was so frequent that her boss asked her to stop, saying she was making other employees uncomfortable, according to one of the people.

 

 

[Technico Support]

They say the best characters are just you, turned up to 11.  Is this the rare case where it went the other way and "Mr. McMahon" was just the real Vince, but turned down to maybe 7ish?

Also, @Greggulator's quote above.  God damn.  That is some narcissistic, drunk with power, "I can do anything I want" shit right there.  That is the definition of "brazen."  See a woman you want to fuck?  Just go ahead and give her an overpaid job at your company.  Wow.  Just wow.  And nobody, not HR, not the department head, nobody, did a damn thing to stop that hire.  You want an indictment of their corporate culture, there it is. 

[NikoBaltimore]

I had a feeling more was going to come out about this.  Too bad about the paywall but going off the highlights in a just world he gets what's coming to him.  But with how things are I won't be holding my breath on that happening.

[Greggulator]

14 minutes ago, (BP) said:

It’s really weird that the Bellas were cool with Johnny Ace getting with their mom. Unless they thought he’d be less of a nuisance to women at work. 

These people are all so fucking crazy. 

[hammerva]

27 minutes ago, Matt D said:

It’s @Bix’s moment to seize his destiny. He shall never have another. 

There will be plenty of destinies for him to seize in wrestling.  Even if he already did it about 10 times already on the subject.  

So I guess Vince will be on Smackdown tonight

[ChesterCopperpot]

23 minutes ago, Greggulator said:

* $7.5 million to a former wrestler whose contract was not renewed in 2005 after she allegedly resisted further sexual encounters.

 

Christy Hemme - demoted to OVW in November 2005 - then released a few weeks later 

[(BP)]

I hope some investigative journalists take a look at the Ashley Massaro allegations now.

[John from Cincinnati]

Full text for anyone interested

Quote

Vince McMahon, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.’s longtime leader, agreed to pay more than $12 million over the past 16 years to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity, an amount far larger than previously known.

The payouts went to four women, all formerly affiliated with WWE, who signed agreements with Mr. McMahon that prohibit them from discussing potential legal claims against or their relationships with the 76-year-old executive, according to people familiar with the deals as well as documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The previously unreported settlements include a $7.5 million pact with a former wrestler who alleged that Mr. McMahon coerced her into giving him oral sex and then demoted her and, ultimately, declined to renew her contract in 2005 after she resisted further sexual encounters, according to people familiar with the matter. The wrestler and her attorney approached Mr. McMahon in 2018 and negotiated the payment in return for her silence, the people said.

In another previously unreported deal, a WWE contractor presented the company with unsolicited nude photos of Mr. McMahon she reported receiving from him and alleged that he had sexually harassed her on the job, according to people familiar with the woman’s 2008 nondisclosure agreement. Mr. McMahon agreed to pay her roughly $1 million, these people said.

And in a 2006 agreement, a former manager who had worked 10 years for Mr. McMahon before he allegedly initiated a sexual relationship with her was paid $1 million to keep quiet about it, according to people familiar with the deal.

The Journal previously reported about a $3 million hush pact reached in January between Mr. McMahon and a former WWE paralegal with whom he allegedly had an affair, citing documents and the people familiar with the matter. WWE’s board is investigating Mr. McMahon’s agreement with the former paralegal, and the 2018 deal with the former wrestler, people familiar with the inquiry said.

The board also is investigating allegations that WWE executive John Laurinaitis had a sexual relationship with the same former paralegal, according to people familiar with the inquiry. Additionally, the board is looking at a $1.5 million nondisclosure agreement reached in 2012 with an employee involving misconduct claims against Mr. Laurinaitis, these people said.

Mr. Laurinaitis, a former wrestler known as Johnny Ace, had been head of WWE talent relations for eight years when he was forced to step down in 2012 and take a smaller role at the company. His demotion came around the same time as the $1.5 million deal with the employee, who alleged she had an affair with Mr. Laurinaitis and that he demoted her after she broke it off, people familiar with the nondisclosure agreement said.

Mr. McMahon had restored Mr. Laurinaitis as head of talent relations last year. WWE has since placed Mr. Laurinaitis on administrative leave, a person familiar with the matter said.

The Journal couldn’t determine whether the board probe includes the nondisclosure agreements involving the contractor and the former manager, or how far back the investigation will go. A spokesman for the board’s independent directors declined to comment.

Neither Mr. Laurinaitis nor an attorney for Mr. McMahon responded to requests for comment.

The company is cooperating with the board inquiry, a WWE spokesman said. Mr. McMahon’s relationship with the former paralegal was consensual, the spokesman said, adding that the company is taking the allegations seriously.

In a June 8 letter to the Journal, Mr. McMahon’s attorney,

Jerry McDevitt, said that the former paralegal hadn’t made any claims of harassment against Mr. McMahon and that “WWE did not pay any monies” to the ex-employee “on her departure.”
 

The investigation by the board’s outside counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP was triggered by a series of anonymous emails that directors received earlier this year, the Journal reported. The emails, reviewed by the Journal, described Mr. McMahon’s deal with the former paralegal and alleged that he and Mr. Laurinaitis took advantage of her.
 

Family ties

Mr. McMahon temporarily stepped aside as the chief executive and chairman of WWE on June 17, following the Journal report on the $3 million agreement with the former paralegal. Mr. McMahon has pledged to cooperate with investigators. His daughter, Stephanie McMahon, replaced him pending the outcome of the investigation, though Mr. McMahon still oversees WWE’s creative side, the company said.

WWE shares closed at $62.51 on the day Mr. McMahon stepped aside and slid below $60 over the following days. Shares closed Thursday at $65.07.
WWE describes Mr. McMahon as critical to the success of the company, which runs the world’s most famous wrestling business and reported record revenue of $1.1 billion last year. WWE said in regulatory filings that losing Mr. McMahon would put its entire business at risk.

WWE’s revenue includes a five-year exclusive agreement with NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming platform struck in 2021 and valued at $1 billion. The company also has TV licensing agreements with Fox Corp. and NBCUniversal, and recently secured its first stand-alone international distribution deal with Disney Plus Hotstar in Indonesia. Fox Corp. and Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.

Mr. McMahon owns a majority of WWE’s Class B shares, giving him the bulk of shareholders’ voting power, securities filings show. The Class B shares have 10 times the voting power of the Class A shares available to regular investors and are owned exclusively by Mr. McMahon, his family and trusts benefiting individual family members, the filings show.

“The bar is going to be reasonably high to wrestle the business from family control,” said Brandon Ross, a research analyst at LightShed Partners who follows WWE. But he added that any outcome that would strip Mr. McMahon’s creative responsibilities would materially change the company.

‘A good time’

The company’s shows have featured executives, including Mr. McMahon, as characters who join in cartoonish violence, risqué skits and soap opera-like story lines about the inner workings of WWE. Mr. McMahon plays a vengeful boss with an out-of-control libido. Some women who have crossed paths with him allege he engaged in similar behavior in real life.

In 2006, Mr. McMahon made news after an employee at a Boca Raton, Fla., tanning salon accused him of groping her, according to a police report.

The employee told police that Mr. McMahon showed her nude photos of himself on his phone and later tried to kiss her, the police report said. Mr. McMahon said “he was only trying to have a little fun,” according to the woman’s account in the police report. Mr. McMahon’s lawyer told police he denied any wrongdoing, the report said.

Prosecutors declined to file charges, citing a lack of independent evidence, records show.

Mr. McMahon’s wife, Linda McMahon, helped build the company and was WWE’s chief executive until she stepped down in 2009 for the first of two unsuccessful campaigns for the Senate. She served as head of the Small Business Administration under former President Donald Trump. Mrs. McMahon didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Mr. McMahon said in an interview with Playboy magazine published in 2001 that he had been unfaithful to Mrs. McMahon with multiple women in prior years but had put a stop to the affairs after realizing “the havoc you create in others’ lives, just from wanting to have a good time.”

Mr. McMahon’s affairs at the company were common knowledge, according to former WWE employees.

The former paralegal to whom Mr. McMahon agreed to pay $3 million was brought into the company as a legal assistant in 2019, according to people familiar with the matter. She never applied for the job, these people said. Mr. McMahon had met her at his Stamford, Conn., condo building, where both were living, the people said.

WWE placed her in the legal department because the woman’s resume said she had attended law school, the people said. The woman often talked with colleagues in the department about her close relationship with Mr. McMahon, the people familiar with the matter said. The talk about Mr. McMahon was so frequent that her boss asked her to stop, saying she was making other employees uncomfortable, according to one of the people.

In 2021, the woman transferred from the legal department to talent relations under Mr. Laurinaitis, who returned to the role he had held a decade earlier.
WWE considered raising the woman’s annual salary from $100,000 to around $300,000, at Mr. McMahon’s request, according to people familiar with the matter. The company settled on a base salary of $200,000 and a director-level position.

An anonymous email sent to the board on March 30 this year, and viewed by the Journal, alleged that Mr. McMahon increased the woman’s salary after he began a sexual relationship with her. The email alleged that Mr. McMahon “gave her like a toy” to Mr. Laurinaitis.

 

 

Edited July 8, 2022 by John from Cincinnati

[Craig H]

10 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

I had a feeling more was going to come out about this.  Too bad about the paywall but going off the highlights in a just world he gets what's coming to him.  But with how things are I won't be holding my breath on that happening.

Yeah, when that initial story dropped I had the same reaction I had to Hannibal Burress saying that joke about Bill Cosby. Everyone was acting shocked, but like, it wasn't even a few years earlier that it was a story that Cosby had drugged and raped women. But that was the start of an avalanche. Like someone threw a snowball and didn't expect what would come after.

That's what that initial story about Vince felt like. Like you more than half expect Vince to be paying hush money to people, but that was really the start of the avalanche. Now here it comes.

[Shartnado]

Just now, ChesterCopperpot said:

 

Christy Hemme - demoted to OVW in November 2005 - then released a few weeks later 

That's what I thought, too. Her departure was very sudden at the time. I read a rumor at the time that there had been something going on with HHH and her, but definitely suspiciously abrupt release. Although, those were more frequent at the time.

[Craig H]

Vince is right now nervously telling Kevin Dunn that he knows Kevin will do the right thing when the time comes just like Kevin's dad did.

lol Kevin Dunn going to be the WWE Christmas tree.

[Raziel]

2 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Vince is right now nervously telling Kevin Dunn that he knows Kevin will do the right thing when the time comes just like Kevin's dad did.

lol Kevin Dunn going to be the WWE Christmas tree.

Throw himself into a burning car to save the records?

[Greggulator]

My basic thoughts as a journalist on the article:

* They have three ace reporters on this byline. It's the two original reporters (one has a Pulitzer) now joined by their lead entertainment/media reporter. You don't throw in resources unless you're still going to keep on the story.

* When you see something like "sources said" or "people said" - that means it was told to a reporter "on background." That's how you anonymously source material for stories. 

* No names are given to the "wrestler" and "contractor" and "manager" involved in the new litigation. The reporters also said they saw documentation of the NDAs and the like. I am guessing the lawyer(s) for the women involved or someone similar redacted the names. The legalese in the separate NDAs described someone as a wrestler/contractor/manager. 

* The WSJ absolutely knows the performers involved. But they were told the names "off-the-record" meaning that a reporter can't site that material unless he/she can verify it by other means. That is what led me to believe the names were redacted in the legalese, or else that would confirm the names. Essentially, the reporters heard the names via a rumor mill and asked them for confirmation and they weren't given a response. The WSJ might also have some sensibility in stories like this in that they don't want to throw out the names of women involved in something like this without their permission.

This is not the last of the stories to come out. The article doesn't mention if the checks came from Vince's bank account or the WWE's. WSJ probably couldn't get that info. Vince's attorney made that statement in the first article. He declined comment for this article. 

[(BP)]

10 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Vince is right now nervously telling Kevin Dunn that he knows Kevin will do the right thing when the time comes just like Kevin's dad did.

Ironically, Kevin will keep his job by burning Vince’s sex tapes in his trunk. 

[supremebve]

2 minutes ago, Greggulator said:

My basic thoughts as a journalist on the article:

* They have three ace reporters on this byline. It's the two original reporters (one has a Pulitzer) now joined by their lead entertainment/media reporter. You don't throw in resources unless you're still going to keep on the story.

* When you see something like "sources said" or "people said" - that means it was told to a reporter "on background." That's how you anonymously source material for stories. 

* No names are given to the "wrestler" and "contractor" and "manager" involved in the new litigation. The reporters also said they saw documentation of the NDAs and the like. I am guessing the lawyer(s) for the women involved or someone similar redacted the names. The legalese in the separate NDAs described someone as a wrestler/contractor/manager. 

* The WSJ absolutely knows the performers involved. But they were told the names "off-the-record" meaning that a reporter can't site that material unless he/she can verify it by other means. That is what led me to believe the names were redacted in the legalese, or else that would confirm the names. Essentially, the reporters heard the names via a rumor mill and asked them for confirmation and they weren't given a response. The WSJ might also have some sensibility in stories like this in that they don't want to throw out the names of women involved in something like this without their permission.

This is not the last of the stories to come out. The article doesn't mention if the checks came from Vince's bank account or the WWE's. WSJ probably couldn't get that info. Vince's attorney made that statement in the first article. He declined comment for this article. 

This reminds me of a conversation I had about Daniel Snyder. If the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal,  etc. starts writing a series of in depth stories about your behavior, they aren't lying. You can't say these types of things in print without mountains of proof. The lawsuit that Vince or Snyder would file if these things were fabrications would put them out of business. This shit is ironclad. 

[(BP)]

Tonight on Smackdown

Vince: The letters WWE stand for World Wrestling Entertainment!

70% of Crowd: Thank you Sir, we’re not worthy!  

[Greggulator]

3 minutes ago, supremebve said:

This reminds me of a conversation I had about Daniel Snyder. If the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal,  etc. starts writing a series of in depth stories about your behavior, they aren't lying. You can't say these types of things in print without mountains of proof. The lawsuit that Vince or Snyder would file if these things were fabrications would put them out of business. This shit is ironclad. 

This is absolutely 100 percent true. Now extrapolate that whenever one of the most reputable outlets in the world writes something about a politician or government official and they decry it as "fake news" or whatever. Or also keep in mind that it's really fucking easy to file a lawsuit that goes nowhere just to try and back up your claim of "fake news." 

It isn't just the major national papers that are this good. Any major daily newspaper in the country has these insanely high standards. 

Please support local journalism.