Vince McMahon attends a press conference to announce that WWE Wrestlemania 29 will be held at MetLife Stadium in 2013 at MetLife Stadium on February 16, 2012 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Michael N. Todaro | Getty Images
Vince McMahon, executive chairman of the board of directors of TKO Group Holdings and founder of wrestling giant WWE, has resigned at both companies, according to a WWE memo obtained by CNBC and confirmed by the company.
“Vince McMahon has resigned from his positions as Executive Chairman 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 of sexual assault and sex trafficking made public Thursday against McMahon.
McMahon denied the allegations. But he said in a statement late Friday that, “out of respect for the WWE Universe, the extraordinary TKO business and its board members and shareholders, partners and constituents, and all the employees and superstars who have helped make WWE is the global leader today, I have decided to resign from my executive chairmanship and the board of directors of TKO, effective immediately.”
The latest allegations against McMahon involve a lawsuit filed by Janel Grant, who claims McMahon ordered her to have sex with a WWE “superstar” and other men. Grant’s lawsuit seeks to void a nondisclosure agreement that she Grant said she reached with McMahon in early 2022.
Grant’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Connecticut claims that billionaire McMahon agreed to pay her $3 million as part of that settlement, but ended up paying her only $1 million in exchange for her silence about his conduct .
In addition to McMahon, 78, the complaint names as defendants WWE and John Laurinaitis, the company’s former head of talent relations and general manager.
The complaint comes six months after federal law enforcement agents executed a search warrant on 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 WWE leadership duties in mid-2022 amid an internal company investigation, only to return as leader in early 2023, paid WWE $17.4 million last March to cover the costs of an investigation into such payments by a law firm hired by WWE. agency.