A man paid a woman $7.5 million, and she signed a piece of paper promising
never to talk about him. Four years later he did it again. Different woman.
$3 million.
We know the amounts because a federal regulator counted them, and we know what
the money bought because the regulator wrote that down too. He calls it minor
accounting errors.
Nobody has proved any of what this film describes. He denies it. No jury has sat
on any of it. But when a public company pays millions of dollars to keep
something quiet, the paying is a fact — whatever the truth of the thing being
paid for.
The SEC’s order of 10 January 2025 finds that WWE itself “benefitted from the
Settlement Agreements, receiving releases and avoiding reputational harm caused
by allegations of misconduct by its CEO being made public”; that the payments
were not disclosed and were not in the books and records; and that McMahon
“knew, or was reckless in not knowing” the agreement and payments had never been
evaluated by WWE’s legal, accounting or financial reporting groups, or by the
board. It does not say he acted knowingly. Those are two different states of
mind, and the order does not choose between them. He paid a $400,000 penalty and
$1,330,915.90 back to the company, without admitting or denying the findings.
Janel Grant sued him in federal court in January 2024, under her own name, using
the word trafficking. He denies all of it and no court ruled on any of it: on 24
July 2026 the parties stipulated to dismissal with prejudice, preserving claims
and defenses for confidential arbitration, and the court closed the case on 27
July, finding the pending motions to compel arbitration moot. Never answered,
never decided, and now somewhere the public cannot follow.
⚠ The $10.5 million is ours — the two figures in the order added together. The
order states no total.
CLOUT — DOCUMENTING THE ZEROES IN WORLDLY HEROES
Dorian Russell | D Booma San
https://linktr.ee/DBoomaSan
Corrections land on the record, dated.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SOURCES, in the film’s call order.
1. SEC, In the Matter of Vincent Kennedy McMahon, Release No. 34-102143, Admin.
Proc. File No. 3-22391, 10 January 2025 — both payment figures, every finding,
the penalty and the reimbursement:
https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/admin/2025/34-102143.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20260608202216/https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/admin/2025/34-102143.pdf
2. Grant v. World Wrestling Entertainment, D. Conn. 3:24-cv-00090, complaint
filed 25 January 2024:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ctd.157647/gov.uscourts.ctd.157647.1.0.pdf
3. Same case, ECF 153, stipulation of voluntary dismissal with prejudice, 24
July 2026; docket terminated 27 July 2026:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ctd.157647/gov.uscourts.ctd.157647.153.0.pdf
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/68191933/grant-v-world-wrestling-entertainment-inc/
4. Doe 1 v. World Wrestling Entertainment, D. Md. 1:24-cv-03487 — the live
matter. Two counts, both negligence; no count alleges he personally abused
anyone. Pseudonymity granted 15 May 2026:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.572286/gov.uscourts.mdd.572286.67.0.pdf
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69431719/doe-1-v-world-wrestling-entertainment-llc/
5. His retirement post, 22 July 2022:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220722200544/
6. WWE Form 8-K, 25 July 2022 — approximately $14.6 million in unrecorded
expenses:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1091907/000109190722000086/wwe-20220722x8k.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20220725171236/https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1091907/000109190722000086/wwe-20220722x8k.htm
7. Schedule 13D/A, 6 January 2023 — “I voluntarily retired from the Company
during the pendency of the special committee investigation”:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1233831/000119312523002760/d447526dsc13da.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20260902125653/https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1233831/000119312523002760/d447526dsc13da.htm
8. His post of 10 January 2025, the day the case closed:
Rita Chatterton’s account reaches this film through Grant’s complaint quoting a
magazine — two layers. He has always denied it; they settled in 2023, and a
settlement is not a finding. On the 1992 matter: nobody was ever criminally
charged, and the civil case people point to did not name him and ended on 16
March 1995 for want of prosecution.
