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(NewsNation) — Janel Grant, the woman suing Vince McMahon for sex trafficking and abuse, allegedly sent the World Wrestling Entertainment’s former CEO explicit text messages, according to a new court filing.
Dave Meltzer, a respected journalist covering professional wrestling, said Tuesday night on “Banfield” that McMahon is trying to clear his name of accusations and wants the case to move to arbitration while Grant would like to proceed with a trial.
“WWE will survive this. As for McMahon, that’s a different story. He’s out, and I don’t anticipate him being back. This time it went too far. He’s trying to clear his name. I don’t know if he can, but this is his attempt,” Meltzer said.
McMahon is claiming Grant liked painful sex and that she asked for thousands of dollars worth of clothes as well as money for plastic surgery, according to the court filing.
Alleged texts from Grant:
- She was in love with him
- He was her best friend
- She fantasized about being held down
- She enjoyed pain
- She wanted him to watch her have sex
McMahon apparently deleted the alleged text messages when he “broke off the relationship” with Grant.
Grant’s lawyers responded to McMahon’s long-awaited response and said “For any comment, see our original filing. We’re confident the truth is laid out well there.”
In Grant’s lawsuit, she said McMahon sexually exploited her and attempted to traffic her to other WWE employees. She said she was abused by McMahon and was allegedly forced to have sex with WWE’s former head of talent relations, John Laurinaitis — all while working for the company.
At the time of the filing, McMahon resigned as executive chairman of WWE parent TKO Group after the former employee filed a 67-page federal lawsuit.
WWE President Nick Khan and COO Brad Blum have also been identified as key figures in Grant’s lawsuit, Front Office Sports reports. Khan’s and Blum’s names were not previously reported in the lawsuit, and they are not personally accused of sexual misconduct.
The suit claims that “they and others facilitated and covered up exploitation in ways that make WWE liable under federal anti-trafficking law,” the report says.