Back in January, former WWE employee Janel Grant accused WWE’s former CEO Vince McMahon of sexual abuse and trafficking. In that lawsuit, several names were omitted and in turn referred to only as a “Corporate Officer.” Unlike McMahon and former Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis who have both been named by Ms. Grant as individuals who participated in the acts she’s alleging, Corporate Officer No. 1 and No. 2 were allegedly instrumental in covering up the behavior. Those individuals have been revealed to be WWE President Nick Khan and current WWE Chief Operating Officer Brad Blum.
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Front Office Sports‘ Tim Marchman, John Pollock and Brandon Thurston began investigating who the unnamed WWE officials are and have found that “WWE Corporate Officer No. 1” (otherwise known as Khan) was, according to the lawsuit, “a high-ranking employee and Board member at WWE during Ms. Grant’s employment with WWE” and retained high-ranking positions post WWE-UFC merger. “WWE Corporate Officer No. 2” (Blum) was described as “a high-ranking employee at WWE who made hiring decisions, conducted prospective employee interviews, and maintained significant control over personnel decisions.”
FOS was able to independently verify the identities of two other high-ranking WWE members, referred to only as “WWE Corporate Officer No. 3” and “WWE Corporate Officer No. 4” in the lawsuit.
“WWE Corporate Officer No. 3” who is now known to be McMahon’s daughter Stephanie McMahon, was described in the lawsuit as “a high-ranking employee and/or Board member during Ms. Grant’s employment with WWE.” The suit claims Stephanie as knowing “of other instances of [Vince] McMahon engaging in inappropriate sexual conduct” and motioned for Grant to sit in a chair near her at one of many WWE Executive Committee meetings she attended.
“WWE Corporate Officer No. 4” is Brian Nurse, who held a position in legal affairs “from the time Ms. Grant was employed until sometime in 2020.” According to Ms. Grant in the lawsuit, she alleges Nurse had been particularly cold and later hostile toward her after she was hired and when others began to notice it she felt she had no choice but to respond to McMahon’s advances in kind.
In an update Ann Callis, Ms. Grant’s attorney, has corroborated the recent findings in a statement that has since been released to the press. “Yes, I can confirm that these names are correct.”
When initial allegations were made against McMahon in 2022, he briefly retired from his position as CEO and Chairman of WWE. Allegedly, McMahon paid millions of dollars to former WWE employees in order to keep alleged affairs and alleged sexual misconduct quiet. He was then the subject of an investigation by WWE’s Board of Directors and once it was “substantially complete,” Paul “Triple H” Levesque was appointed Head of Talent Relations and Head of Creative while Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan were momentarily named Co-CEOs.
In January of 2023, McMahon returned to WWE despite opposition from the the Board of Directors who believed that while the government investigations into McMahon’s conduct by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and SEC were still pending, it “would not be prudent from a shareholder value perspective.” Upon said return, he became the Executive Chairman of the Board where he remained to initiate a sale of the WWE which officially went through in September of 2023. WWE and the UFC officially merged to create TKO Group Holdings, a $21.4 billion sports giant. McMahon has since resigned from TKO/WWE entirely following the allegations brought forth by Ms. Grant.
