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Vince Russo recently gave his thoughts on what WWE's parent company, TKO, might have known about Janel Grant's lawsuit against Vince McMahon.
Grant, a WWE employee between 2019 and 2022, accused McMahon of sexual assault and trafficking in a lawsuit filed on January 25. The 78-year-old denied the allegations before resigning from the TKO board "out of respect."
Russo, WWE's head writer in the late 1990s, appeared on Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Outlaws show with Dr. Chris Featherstone and EC3. He speculated that people within Endeavor, the majority owner of TKO, likely knew about the lawsuit before it became public knowledge.
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"They [Endeavor] did the best they could do to distance [themselves from Vince McMahon]," Russo said. "I said a long time ago when they made the deal with TKO, Chris, if you remember, we kept seeing a separation from Vince, and I said at that time, bro, TKO, Ari [Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel] must know there's more coming down the pike and they're trying to distance themselves from Vince. So I have to believe that they knew more stuff like this was coming." [2:36 – 3:09]
Watch the video above to hear Russo explain how Stephanie and Vince McMahon behaved differently from Linda and Shane McMahon.
EC3 on the possible aftermath of the Vince McMahon allegations
Mike Johnson of PW Insider recently reported how Ari Emanuel could deal with current WWE employees with close links to Vince McMahon. According to a source, many people do not understand "how ferociously he [Emanuel] will eradicate" things to protect his businesses.
EC3 wrestled for WWE between 2009 and 2013 before returning for another run with the company between 2018 and 2020. The NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion offered his take on what people knew about McMahon:
"I would think with TKO and Endeavor, like Vince [Russo] saying they kinda separated themselves earlier – they got ahead of that – that if they're part of this negotiation process with this [Netflix] deal coming, I would think there would be some sort of like, 'Well, this might be a thing,'" EC3 said. "But if it were to be somewhat false allegations, the trickle-down effect of so many professionals losing jobs and incomes is hard to fathom too. But then if it's true, they don't deserve to suffer because of it either. It just sucks, man." [4:06 – 4:50]
EC3 and Vince Russo also discussed how WWE's new streaming partner, Netflix, potentially reacted to the lawsuit news.
Please credit Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Outlaws and embed the video if you use quotes from this article.
Glenn Jacobs (FKA Kane) shares his reaction to WWE being sold:
