I’m going to pass on giving my usual chipper greeting I normally do when I write up a post as what I’m going to be talking about here isn’t anything to be happy about. This is going to be a very serious post and, in all honesty, I’m doing this for more therapeutic purposes for myself to figure out my current headspace. I don’t have anything mapped out regarding what I’m going to be saying here. This is more for me to figure out what I’m going to do now with the allegations which were levied on Vince McMahon, John Laurinitis and the WWE.

I also do have to warn readers of the possibility of some distressing topics I may be writing about this deals with some horrible allegations of sex trafficking and forced sexual relations. I just feel I have to warn you as these may be things which may upset readers. I don’t think I’ll be delving into great detail but I will probably linking to videos of people discussing the matter or whatnot. Like I said, I don’t have any idea of how this will go.

A week ago, a woman named Janel Grant submitted a civil case lawsuit against Vince McMahon, John Laurinitis and the WWE as a whole. The complaint states that she was sexually abused by then WWE CEO Vince McMahon on several instances and was also forced to do sexual acts to several individuals on the behest of Vince McMahon, including specifically John Laurinitis, Vince McMahon’s unnamed physical therapist and even coerced to send sexually explicit images and/or videos to someone the WWE was trying to re-sign, which is implied to be Brock Lesnar.

Essentially, Janel Grant is accusing Vince McMahon of abusing his authority and used his position to intimidate her into doing sexual actions against her will, John Laurinitis repeatedly forcing himself on her during her tenure with the WWE and the WWE company as a whole was aware of the abuse but covered it up. These are the broad strokes of the lawsuit but you can read the entire filing in various websites such as over here.

I will have to play devil’s advocate to start out. I did read through the entire lawsuit filing and the allegations are indeed horrific. However, as of right now, that’s all they are: allegations. This is just a court filing and nothing else has been proven or clarified. The filing is just Janel Grant’s allegations on Vince McMahon, John Laurinitis and the WWE. No actual proof has been given as of this writing and the defendants, besides either saying the lawsuit is littered with lies as with Vince McMahon, the WWE still pretty much dodging the issue by saying they are conducting an internal investigation and John Laurinitis saying he himself was a “victim” of Vince McMahon because he had to do what the boss told him to do.

I also do have to mention that this is a civil case and not a criminal case. This is actually important as, in American law at least, the burden of proof is much lower in a civil trial than in a criminal trial. If you’ve seen crime dramas on television, you should be familiar with the entire “beyond a reasonable doubt” bar which has to be met to convict someone in a criminal trial. In a civil trial, on the other hand, the standard is known as “preponderance to the evidence.”

While there’s still the standard of “innocent until proven guilty” with both of them, it’s much easier to declare someone guilty in a civil trial. That’s because, in a criminal trial, there has to be no other reasonable explanation other than the person being the perpetrator of the crime. In a civil trial, it just has to “be more than likely” that the person is guilty based on the evidence. Based on the filing, I do believe Janel Grant will win her case, especially if the news that her lawyer is getting more and more people coming forward after this lawsuit was filed. It also doesn’t help Vince McMahon that he has been accused of sexual impropriety before by former WWE employees, former referee Rita Chatterton to name one. That’s just the tip of the iceberg since, as of this writing, a grand jury also has ordered a federal case against Vince McMahon.

So, there have been allegations against Vince McMahon for quite a while now. So, why are people getting so riled up about it just now? Well, I would say it’s because of how demented and, frankly, evil the current allegations made by Janel Grant makes. Like I said, I have read through the entire lawsuit filing and some of the things in there are just frightening. The addition of psychological torture also really hits hard for me as, while I haven’t endured that level of abuse, I have had someone in a higher position come on too strong, with the promise of “a better future” and the like if I pledge loyalty to them or something along those lines. It never got out of hand, thankfully, but this does lead me to believe someone like Vince McMahon can manipulate people into doing disgusting things.

This now leads me to my dilemma. I’ve been a longtime WWE fan. I grew up watching the Attitude Era, a time when the company was in their most sadistic and misogynistic. Well, I hate to say it but I do love that time period! However, with Janel Grant’s lawsuit, even that’s been tainted with former WWE talent like Torrie Wilson saying, at one time, she was holding back tears when she had to prance around in a bikini as it was her job. It didn’t bother me then as they looked so happy then. However, when you realize some of them were dying inside, it doesn’t feel right to enjoy it as much anymore.

However, I do have to focus on the now. Should I even be a supporter of the WWE now? After all, the lawsuit does allege how the higher ups in the WWE were aware of Vince McMahon and John Laurinitis’ disgusting actions. This does make them pretty much as disgusting as the two, if the allegations are true, anyway. Honestly, even after all the blithering I’ve done so far by spouting all of this, I can’t really decide because I don’t really know the extent of the WWE’s involvement. I guess I do have to explain what I mean by this.

Did the WWE’s higher ups know about Janel Grant and Vince McMahon? Most probably they did. However, the thing I can’t really say is if they knew the actual extent of the relationship. The lawsuit does state Vince McMahon showing pictures of Janel Grant around the office in rather graphic situations and how the men would hoot and holler and all that. Is that disgusting behavior? Yes. Do the men who were hooting and hollering actually know Vince McMahon was abusing her behind the scenes? I can’t say. Did they know John Laurinitis was using her to gratify his sexual urges in the morning? I would think so, yes. Did they know she was doing this against her will? I’m unsure about this. Did Linda McMahon tell Vince McMahon to break off his relationship with Janel Grant? Very likely. Did Linda McMahon know Janel Grant didn’t even want to be in a relationship with Vince McMahon? Maybe but I can’t say for sure.

Once again, I have to play devil’s advocate and say the people in the WWE knew about Vince McMahon and John Laurinitis “sharing” Janel Grant. I can safely say they wanted to cover it all up, if the allegations are true. What I can’t say definitively is they didn’t know it was not consensual. They may just be trying to cover up something they thought was an extra-marital affair to avoid a scandal, hence the NDA agreement. I mean, I don’t think someone as conniving and, well, possibly evil as Vince McMahon or even John Laurinitis would openly admit she was being physically, mentally, emotionally and psychologically being abused. Instead, they would probably say things like Janet Grant was Vince McMahon’s latest extramarital affair or they thought she was a prostitute Vince McMahon kept on the company payroll so he and others could have sex with whenever they wanted, which would also explain why it was okay to “pass her around” to other individuals and for people like Brock Lesnar could request for sexual gratification. They may even say she was some “loose woman” who had dark, perverted fantasies and they were only glad to oblige, which is why Vince McMahon would send some really disturbing text message to her: she wanted these kinds of messages.

Don’t get me wrong: that doesn’t mean the WWE is clear for the abuse Vince McMahon and John Laurinitis did to this woman, if the allegations are true. They still provided an unsafe work environment, which they would know all about due to the all the hush money payouts they have had to dole out to other women who tried to accuse Vince McMahon in the past. They allowed this to go unchecked so they do have some culpability. However, as a whole, I am still unsure if the WWE was aware of the extent of the abuse Janet Grant went through. Like I said, some of them could’ve written it off as just Vince McMahon’s latest conquest, without realizing she never wanted to be conquered at any point.

I can’t say the same for John Laurinitis, though. He’s saying he’s also a “victim” in this but, at this time, I just can’t believe that. Sure, he could say he was just sexually assaulting her because Vince McMahon ordered him to. He might even say he thought she was a prostitute Vince McMahon “gave” him and now he’s using that as blackmail for whatever reason. I just can’t see it, though. It would have to be a really good and convincing argument, with really solid evidence, to convince me otherwise that he was a victim in all of this. I’m actually curious how his current family is going to handle the situation moving forward as he did marry the Bella Twins’ mom a few years ago.

However, if the allegations are true, I really can’t forgive Vince McMahon. I’ve read through the lawsuit and it is incredibly appalling. Vince McMahon says he’s totally innocent, of course, as all the allegations by Janel Grant are all lies. I will admit the text messages which were included might not be enough as, like I mention, Vince McMahon could defend himself by saying she likes to be spoken to in that way. However, you have to remember this is a civil case and not a criminal case. There’s no “beyond a reasonable doubt” in play here. This is more on what is more likely and, with all of the previous allegations that were levied against him, the Federal government investigating him over all of the hush money payments, NDA documents and out of court settlements he’s had, that defense is not going to cut it. Even if Janel Grant has proof for just half of the allegations, that’s still enough to overcome the burden of “preponderance to the evidence” for the entire lawsuit.

However, Vince McMahon is once again out of the WWE. So is John Laurinitis. The parent company of the WWE, Endeavor said they will be “cleaning house” as in getting rid of all the people who are close to Vince McMahon as they are, more likely than not, aware of his actions but didn’t do anything as well as be an attempt to remove the stench of Vince McMahon from the WWE. How this will affect people like Triple H, who is his son-in-law as Triple H is married to Vince McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie McMahon.

So, what now? How do I now rationalize my WWE fandom after all of this? Well, after writing all of this, I think I have come to my own conclusion. I do think I will support the WWE for now. Like I said, while the WWE may be implicit by allowing alleged monsters like Vince McMahon and John Laurinitis to do these alleged despicable and depraved acts to a young woman, they are responding to the accusations. Vince McMahon is gone and it does look like the current WWE is trying to scrub him out as much as possible. That doesn’t make up for what allegedly happened as they are just protecting themselves but at least they forced him out. Vince McMahon can say he did it on his own volition but I’m betting Endeavor has more leverage over him than you think. I do hope Endeavor really cleans house and remove the Vince McMahon loyalists, even if they may be innocent of this particular instance. That’s because they probably aware of all the other previous instances of impropriety Vince McMahon had done and did nothing but cover it up.

Also, like I said, I just don’t think there is enough evidence as of right now for me to say that they actually knew about the abuse that was happening under their nose. This is most especially true for a lot of the workers. Even if Vince McMahon did show the crew pictures of Janel Grant in compromising poses and in various states of undress, I don’t think Vince McMahon told them that he groomed her and now was abusing her and treating her like a sex slave against her wishes. He probably told them she was his new side piece. Gross? Yes. However, it’s not exactly something they would think was as evil as what was really happening. However, that could all change in an instant if new evidence does come up and it shows how rotten the WWE is from the inside and how everyone knew about all the evil things Vince McMahon and John Laurinitis have allegedly been doing to her and they did nothing about it. That’s a hard boycott for me.

I’m not asking anyone to continue watching the WWE nor am I saying you should boycott it either. I’m just saying what’s right for me at this point. I suggest you do your own soul searching about this and see if it still feels right to watch a WWE show when you know all of this. I’m going to still watch but I do know there will be this dark cloud of ickiness while this is ongoing.

What are your thoughts on this entire situation? How will this affect your fandom of the WWE? Let me know in the comments section below.