WWE Board Investigating Vince McMahon for Secret Settlement Payments

The WWE board of directors is investigating a secret $3 million settlement payment that Vince McMahon agreed to pay a former WWE employee with whom he allegedly had an affair, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

The payment to the former employee was part of an agreement that bars her from discussing her alleged relationship with Vince McMahon or disparaging him.

Board members learned of the $3 million payment in late March of this year in a series of anonymous emails from someone who said the former employee was a friend. The first email alleged that the former employee, who worked as a paralegal for WWE, was initially hired at a salary of $100,000, but it was increased to $200,000 after she began a sexual relationship with McMahon. The email also said that McMahon “gave her like a toy” to John Laurinaitis, WWE’s head of talent relations, though the Wall Street Journal didn’t give any more details about what exactly that means.

“My friend was so scared so she quit after Vince McMahon and lawyer Jerry [McDevitt] paid her millions of dollars to shut up,” the email said.

The former employee was hired as a paralegal in 2019, then moved to become an “assistant” to Laurinaitis in 2021.

A WWE spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that WWE is “cooperating fully with the board inquiry and that the relationship with the ex-paralegal was consensual” and that “the company takes the allegations seriously and is dealing with them appropriately.”

The board’s investigation began in April and has since unearthed other older nondisclosure agreements “involving claims by former female WWE employees of misconduct by Mr. McMahon and one of his top executives, John Laurinaitis, the head of talent relations at WWE,” the Wall Street Journal says.

The board’s preliminary findings are that McMahon “used personal funds to pay the former female employees who signed the agreements,” the WSJ added. Their sources also said that the board is investigating “WWE’s compliance and human-resources programs and company culture.”

Eight of the board’s independent directors have hired a law firm to conduct the investigation and early in the inquiry, they asked McMahon and Laurinaitis to turn over complaints or allegations about any relationships they may have had with company employees.

The other four non-“independent” members of the 12 member board are Vince McMahon, Nick Khan, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H. Since Stephanie is on the board, she would have likely been made aware of the investigation when it began in April. In May, Stephanie announced that she was “taking a leave of absence” from WWE to focus on her family. It’s unclear if the investigation is related to her taking a leave.