Vince McMahon's hush-money scandal: A window into Trump's America

[marmar]

Vince McMahon's hush-money scandal: A window into Trump's America
Pro wrestling mogul (and Trump pal) Vince McMahon built an empire on exploitation — and that's barely even news

By IRVIN MUCHNICK
Contributing writer
PUBLISHED JULY 16, 2022 8:00AM


(Salon) The Wall Street Journal last month broke the story of WWE mogul Vince McMahon's payments of hush money to an office paralegal whom he had coerced into a sexual relationship. Since then, the Journal's reporting has expanded into revelations that McMahon, over the years, paid out a total of $12 million to silence current or former WWE employees who alleged sexual harassment. The claims also extended to WWE's top executive for talent relations, John Laurinaitis (brother of the late "Road Warrior Animal," Joe Laurinaitis, and uncle of former NFL linebacker James Laurinaitis).

As chronicled by the newspaper of record of the financial ruling class, these long-whispered scandals became an affair of state. Following its origins as a third-generation northeastern promotional stronghold of pro wrestling's pre-cable territorial era, WWE is now a publicly traded multinational corporation on the New York Stock Exchange. After the first Wall Street Journal report, McMahon resigned as chair and CEO of WWE. He was replaced by his daughter Stephanie, who plays Christie, the enlightened and strong feminist heir, to Vince's Hugh Hefner. (Stephanie is married to former wrestler and current company executive Paul "Triple H" Levesque.)

....(snip)....

Nor, at this stage of the failed state that is the United States of America, is it much more than a pop culture cliché to point out that wrestling's histrionics and reality-TV M.O. were a metaphor for the rise of Donald Trump. The 45th president, who continues to lurk in hope of an authoritarian sequel, is a decades-long crony of Vince McMahon and his wife Linda (who was head of the Small Business Administration under Trump). Trump performed in WWE shticks, hosted two early WrestleMania pay-per-view extravaganzas at his now defunct Atlantic City casino, spurred record buy numbers at a later one and is a proud inductee of the WWE Hall of Fame.

Beginning nearly 40 years ago, I wrote some of the earliest major articles that took the wrestling industry seriously and explored the relationship between its explosion and the breakdown of regulations, specifically, and of civil society, generally – for publications such as Penthouse, Washington Monthly and Spy. So I am here to review that story, but also to do more.

Yes, the wrestling-ization of America, like the Trumpfication of America, has been insidious and inexorable. But it has not been inevitable. In the case of Vince McMahon, there were rope guides to his ascent. And there were missed opportunities, by the media and most especially by prosecutors. There was one huge missed opportunity to take him down nearly 30 years ago. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/07/16/vince-mcmahons-hush-money-scandal-a-window-into-america/

[dameatball]

1. Interesting article. Seems fitting that Santorum and Giuliani had some peripheral involvement.

What a sleazepit.

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

The former paralegal to whom Mr. McMahon agreed to pay $3 million was brought into the company as a legal assistant in 2019, according to people familiar with the matter. She never applied for the job, these people said. Mr. McMahon had met her at his Stamford, Conn., condo building, where both were living, the people said.

WWE placed her in the legal department because the woman’s résumé said she had attended law school, the people said. The woman often talked with colleagues in the department about her close relationship with Mr. McMahon, the people familiar with the matter said. The talk about Mr. McMahon was so frequent that her boss asked her to stop, saying she was making other employees uncomfortable, according to one of the people.

In 2021, the woman transferred from the legal department to talent relations under Mr. Laurinaitis, who returned to the role he had held a decade earlier.

WWE considered raising the woman’s annual salary from $100,000 to around $300,000, at Mr. McMahon’s request, according to people familiar with the matter. The company settled on a base salary of $200,000 and a director-level position.

An anonymous email sent to the board on March 30 this year, and viewed by the Journal, alleged that Mr. McMahon increased the woman’s salary after he began a sexual relationship with her. The email alleged that Mr. McMahon “gave her like a toy” to Mr. Laurinaitis.