A new report has claimed that Vince McMahon and WWE are continuing on as normal despite the WWE Chairman being under investigation.
On June 15th news broke that Vince McMahon was being investigated by WWE’s board of directors over allegations that he paid $3 million to a former employee with whom he had previously had an affair.
The report from the Wall Street Journal, noted that the board began investigating the claims back in April. The allegations centre on McMahon’s hiring of an unnamed woman as a paralegal in 2019. Anonymous emails suggest that McMahon gave the woman a pay increase from $100,000 to $200,000 after beginning a physical relationship with her.
The emails allege that Vince McMahon’s long-time attorney Jerry McDevitt, paid the woman “millions of dollars to shut up.”
The Journal’s report continues to say that the board’s investigation has also unearthed older non-disclosure agreements that surround claims of misconduct made by other former female WWE employees that involve both Vince McMahon and WWE’s Head of Talent Relations, John Laurinaitis.
The emails also allege that the female employee in question as given to Laurinaitis “like a toy.”
Despite the investigation, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that McMahon and Laurinaitis will be attending the SmackDown taping on June 17th as normal.
“Vince McMahon and John Laurinitis are going to TV Friday, at least of a couple of hours ago, that’s what we had heard. They are basically saying that it is business as usual.”
In addition, Meltzer confirms that Stephanie McMahon was aware of the investigation before taking her leave of absence in May. However, it remains unclear as to whether her departure was related to the investigation, and allegations made against her father.
Meltzer adds that there are people within WWE who expect McMahon to “survive” the investigation, although the future of Laurinaitis is much less certain.
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