OAJ Hot Take: Can the WWE Ever Change?
Author's Note: The content presented in this article deals with deeply disturbing and distressing subject material related to personal and sexual violence.
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January 2024 should have been one of the most triumphant months in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) history. The industry-leading company signed a landmark streaming deal with Netflix just days before, valued at $5 billion, and announced the return of Dwayne “the Rock'' Johnson to the company as a member of the Board of Trustees. After their sale to holding company juggernaut Endeavor and consolidation with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) into TKO Group Holdings this fall, the WWE made unprecedented revenue. Under the creative leadership of Paul Levesque, the company saw record revenues and critical acclaim. After decades of industry dominance, the WWE seemed untouchable.
The arrival of the legal trouble on January 26 shattered their invincibility. The Wall Street Journal reported on a lawsuit against former WWE owner Vince McMahon, who reigned as TKO Executive Chairman. Former WWE legal employee Janel Grant filed a suit against McMahon, former Vice President of Talent Relations John Laurinitus, and the WWE on charges of sex trafficking and sexual assault. The 67-page pre-trial report contains horrific stories on McMahon trapping Grant in a sexual relationship in exchange for employment, repeatedly raping and demeaning her, sharing explicit materials with employees, and even using her as a sexual bargaining chip to re-sign a talent. The court document presented text messages from McMahon, unveiling racist sexual dynamics. These included references to specific racially coded sex toys that he allegedly used on Grant, naming them after male wrestlers based on their race. Upon the end of their relationship, which the accuser alleges that several executives knew about, McMahon allegedly coerced her into signing a non-disclosure agreement, which he did not fully pay out. As a federal investigation into his alleged misconduct became public, McMahon resigned from the company. A poorly received press conference by Paul Levesque (who is also McMahon's son-in-law) exacerbated the situation, leading fans and industry insiders to anticipate further turmoil within the industry.
Now, the question arises: why did the situation have to reach this point? Before Grant's lawsuit, McMahon marred his reputation. These new charges stem from McMahon’s first exit from the company in 2022 when the Wall Street Journal first reported he signed millions of dollars’ worth of non-disclosure agreements with company money to hide his extramarital affairs. However, McMahon staged a coup d’etat in early 2023, rallying his supporters to vote him back onto the board of trustees before the company sale to Endeavor. McMahon’s nefarious reputation was known by all when Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel appointed him to the new TKO board and stated that he would not interfere with McMahon’s business ambitions. Dating back to 1992, at least three other women have presented cases of sexual assault against him. Beyond those cases, stories and lawsuits from former WWE talent and their families abound about McMahon sexually engaging with female wrestlers, creating unsafe work environments that led to at least one in-ring death, creating a culture of widespread steroid abuse in the company which shortened hundreds of wrestlers’ lives, centering a staunchly pro-America agenda in his creative plans which demonized countless Brown and Black wrestlers, and cover-ups of sexual assault and femicide. This man’s notoriety surely should have prevented him from being an unchecked tyrant over the American pro-wrestling industry for 40-plus years.
While the professional wrestling industry lacks infrastructure for removing abusers and white supremacists, in 2020, hope for change existed in the fallout of the Speaking Out movement. Fans and wrestlers alike exposed dozens of wrestlers of sexual misconduct and domestic abuse, leading to many firings and a parliamentary probe in the United Kingdom. However, accused wrestlers like JD McDonagh, Austin Theory, and Darby Allin retained their jobs and keep high placements on event cards even today. Several accused wrestlers who had been fired like Matt Riddle and Velveteen Dream lost their jobs much later due to unrelated incidents. Some like Travis Banks and Marty Scurll just relocated to foreign companies. Finally, of course, none of the sweeping investigations seemed to touch the upper-ranking management of wrestling promotions, including McMahon. Speaking Out is just a microcosm of a business with very forgiving attitudes to tenured performers, no matter what their accused crimes are. It is a glorified boy’s club that shields its “legends” and “promising performers” from accountability.
How, then, can the professional wrestling business change? McMahon long pushed to get government interference in his company off his back, including admitting to the New Jersey State Senate that wrestling is predetermined “sports entertainment” to avoid paying sports taxes. Wrestling regulatory commissions do exist, more so in foreign markets like Japan and Mexico, but hold symbolic power and very rarely exert authority over major companies. One method of change would be an international agreement reached between regulatory commissions with actual strength and explicit rules for the protection of talent against abuse. Forming such oversight committees may be the only hope to bring change into companies without the constant threat of FBI investigation.
Realistically, however, hope appears feeble. The WWE's nationwide expansion in the 1980s rendered the board of the National Wrestling Alliance, the last semblance of an American pro-wrestling regulatory commission, powerless. The near-monopolization of the industry in the U.S. destroyed market incentives to change decades-old business practices, including protections for workers. John Oliver's exposé on the infamous “independent contractor” status of most wrestlers shows how such working conditions squash aspirations for wrestler unionization and internal reform.
With profits soaring to unprecedented heights and Vince McMahon absent from the news cycle, WWE itself lacks significant impetus for further change. While some executives may depart, the entrenched patterns will persist. The pervasive view of women as inferior to their male counterparts will endure. White supremacist politics behind the scenes and on camera will go on. The entrenched fanaticism of fanbases, even in the face of their heroes' reprehensible actions, will continue. This remains a shameful reality to confront – that our beloved industry refuses to embrace even the faintest glimmer of change.
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