Former WWE Tag Team Champion Paul London addressed recent allegations against Vince McMahon, comparing the former CEO to NXVIM leader Keith Raniere.
On January 25th, Wall Street Journal reported that former WWE employee Janel Grant had filed a new lawsuit against Vince McMahon. The lawsuit contains horrifying allegations and graphic descriptions of sexual assault, emotional abuse, and sex trafficking at the hands of McMahon and former Executive Vice President of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis.
On January 26th, Vince McMahon resigned from all duties with TKO and WWE while continuing to deny the allegations against him.
In the wake of the lawsuit, some have been critical of Grant for choosing to stay in such an allegedly traumatic situation. Former WWE Tag Team Champion Paul London addressed this type of criticism on late January episode of Cafe de Rene, pointing out that Grant was in a vulnerable situation when her relationship with McMahon allegedly began. London went as far as to compare McMahon to convicted sex cult leader Keith Raniere, who recruited Smallville actress Allision Mack as a high-ranking official in his NXIVM organization.
“And he saw a vulnerable person and was able to really groom her. So like, it’s easy for people to point fingers and point out what they think is suspicious. But who the f*ck are they if they haven’t gone through it? If they haven’t experienced it, if they haven’t, you know, we don’t, nobody knows who this girl is or what her background is, right? Or how traumatized she was, or whatever.
“So he looked at it in a similar sense to like NXVIM, which was the cult, run by Keith Reniere, who he recruited to let like, you know, Allison Mack from Smallville was the big one that became kind of his cheerleader, and recruiter, and all this stuff. So it’s a different type of cult. Money, power, attention. And it’s not to say that, ‘Oh, she craved these things.’ But this is, again, somebody who lost their parents and from where we can gather, didn’t seem to have anybody, I don’t know. So he saw that opening.”
“He’s A Master Manipulator” – Paul London On Vince McMahon
Continuing, London pointed out that according to the details of the lawsuit, Vince McMahon allegedly had access to many explicit photos and videos of Grant, evidence he could use to ruin her career aspirations if she tried to speak out while the situation was ongoing.
“And like I said, I don’t know anything. All I know about the grooming process is what I learned in documentaries on the subject, but this appears to obviously be a grooming situation where… and the reason I brought up the NXIVM thing is because they all had to give collateral – pictures, account numbers, right?
“So she would have already given pictures and videos and all that stuff so they had collateral on her, so that that’s a reason, like that can be a reason, because who knows what her career goals are, but she could kiss all that away if maybe this gets out, or gets leaked, or videos you know getting the three way should or I don’t f*cking [know], right? But they’ve got stuff hanging over her, right? And that’s because they were able to groom it out of her.”
Continuing, London called McMahon a “master manipulator” and said the consequences for the former Chairman of the Board are karma.
“So it’s it’s just, you know, it’s a different type of grooming. And I don’t know he’s a master manipulator and you know, karma. So that’s the last I’ll say about it is karma.”
If you use any quotes from this transcription, please credit Cafe de Rene and link back to this article with a h/t to Inside the Ropes.