Vincent Kennedy McMahon is gone from WWE, and the company’s new partners at Netflix have wasted no time in distancing themselves from the former Chairman.
McMahon re-signed from TKO and WWE last week, following a lawsuit filed by ex-employee Janel Grant. Miss Grant claims that McMahon was sexually abusive to her and that he trafficked her to others in the company, including John Lauriniaits and a former UFC Heavyweight Champion. McMahon has denied the allegations against him and, via a spokesperson, has claimed the lawsuit is rife with “obscene made-up instances that never occurred.”
Netflix’s CEO Comments on Vince McMahon
The allegations against McMahon surfaced shortly after WWE reached a massive deal with Netflix to move Raw to the streaming juggernaut. Given the seriousness of the allegations, there had been speculation that this $5 billion could have been in jeopardy had WWE/TKO not taken action against McMahon.
This week, Netflix staged its press event, dubbed Next on Netflix, at its Tudum Theater in Hollywood. When asked about McMahon and the potential impact the lawsuit could have on WWE’s deal with Netflix, content chief Bela Bajaria asserted that McMahon will not be a factor going forward.
“He’s gone. So he’s not there. He’s gone.”
The Netflix-WWE Deal
Brandon Reign, Netflix’s VP of nonfiction was also at the press event. When asked about the deal with WWE, Reigg commended the combined efforts of the WWE Universe and Netflix’s subscribers.
“I think we’re all really bullish on it, but we know that has an incredibly consistent audience for the last several decades. And so that’s really first and foremost where we’re starting at and then we’ll see where we go from there.”
Monday Night Raw begins streaming on Netflix in January 2025.
