Vince McMahon attends a press conference to announce that WWE Wrestlemania 29 will take place at MetLife Stadium in 2013 at MetLife Stadium on February 16, 2012 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Michael N. Todaro | fake images
Vince McMahon, executive chairman of the board of TKO Group Holdings and founder of wrestling giant WWE, has resigned from his positions at both companies, according to a WWE memo obtained by CNBC and confirmed by the company.
“Vince McMahon has resigned from his positions as CEO of TKO and on the TKO Board of Directors. He will no longer have any role with TKO Group Holdings or WWE,” WWE Chairman Nick Khan said.
The announcement came in the wake of allegations made public Thursday of sexual assault and sex trafficking against McMahon.
McMahon has denied the allegations. But he said in a statement Friday night that, “out of respect for the WWE Universe, the extraordinary business of TKO and its board members and shareholders, partners and constituents, and all the employees and superstars who helped make WWE in the global leader”. “It is today, I have decided to resign from my executive chairmanship and from the board of directors of TKO, effective immediately.”
The latest allegations against McMahon came in a lawsuit filed by Janel Grant, who alleges that McMahon ordered her to have sexual relations with a WWE “superstar” and other men. Grant's lawsuit seeks to void a confidentiality agreement that Grant said she reached with McMahon in early 2022.
Grant's lawsuit in Connecticut District Court says billionaire McMahon agreed to pay him $3 million as part of that settlement, but ended up paying him only $1 million in exchange for his silence about his conduct.
In addition to McMahon, 78, the complaint names WWE and John Laurinaitis, the company's former head of talent relations and general manager, as defendants.
The complaint comes six months after federal agents executed a search warrant against McMahon and served him with a grand jury subpoena as part of an investigation into McMahon's payment of millions of dollars to several women, including Grant, after allegations of sexual misconduct.
McMahon, who stepped down from his WWE leadership positions in mid-2022 amid an internal company investigation, only to return as its leader in early 2023, last March paid WWE $17.4 million to cover the costs of an investigation into those payments by a law firm hired by the company.
