A brand new documentary concerning the rise and fall of World Wrestling Entertainment’s Vince McMahon debuted on Netflix early Wednesday, and it is eliciting quite a lot of feelings from considered one of his accusers.
The six-part “Mr. McMahon” options interviews with McMahon and touches on controversies which have plagued his decadeslong profession. They embody accusations of intercourse trafficking by Janel Grant, a former WWE worker who accused McMahon in a civil suit in January of forcing her right into a sexual relationship in alternate for a job.
“I feel she’s fearful, however that’s her common frame of mind,” mentioned Ann Callis, who’s Grant’s lawyer. “She’s been fearful since she’s been intercourse trafficked.”
Callis mentioned Grant, who didn’t take part within the documentary however whose story is featured, has but to look at the sequence. “Not having any management over what is claimed about her does instill some worry … however you realize, she’s surviving,” she mentioned.
As for why she’s not within the sequence, “Janel thinks she wants to inform her story in her personal method and on the proper time for her. She’s not a WWE storyline. She needs to take possession of her personal story, and I feel she deserves the dignity of that,” Callis mentioned.
Grant agreed to pause her civil case in Could, pending a federal investigation by the Southern District of New York. NBC Information has reported that WWE disclosed last year that investigators served McMahon with a federal grand jury subpoena and executed a search warrant.
McMahon didn’t reply to a request for remark. In a statement ahead of the documentary’s release, he mentioned producers used “typical enhancing methods” to “assist a deception narrative.” He mentioned he hoped viewers would “keep in mind that there are two sides to each story.”
Grant’s lawsuit additionally alleged that she was assaulted by WWE govt John Laurinaitis, who has denied the accusation. His attorneys have mentioned they’d “be vigorously defending these expenses in court docket, not the media.”
Callis mentioned her agency is investigating different potential claims in opposition to McMahon and WWE.
“If I might sum it up usually, it’s a tradition of corruption,” Callis mentioned. “There’s a tradition of victimization of ladies. We’ve heard from men and women that there wasn’t actually a security web there. It was Vince’s present.”
McMahon turned a family identify after he co-founded the $8 billion enterprise empire that paved the best way for Hulk Hogan, John Cena, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and different superstars.
They’re additionally included within the docuseries.
The sequence additionally addresses different allegations, together with accusations that former WWE referee Rita Chatterton was sexually assaulted in 1986.
“When you’re accused of rape, you’re a rapist,” McMahon says within the docuseries. “Nevertheless it was consensual. And really, had it been a rape, the statute of limitations had run out. So it’s all type of crap like that that individuals are digging up and looking for on you.”