I respect everyone has different goals in wrestling media but we get to ask only a few questions per month to WWE EVP Paul Levesque and rarely have access to any other executive. A sex trafficking lawsuit was filed a few days ago against 3 parties: Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and against the company itself, WWE. It alleges trafficking and sexual assault (including claims of instances inside WWE HQ).
But not only that. Janel Grant says multiple executives (at least 4, who are anonymized, and we can’t rule out Levesque or Nick Khan are among them) had knowledge of the relationship between she (an entry-level employee) and Vince McMahon (the CEO) and did nothing to intervene.
Keep in mind WWE itself disclosed in 2022 there are multiple additional NDAs between Vince and other women, whose stories we barely know anything about.
Given the context and profoundly disturbing new allegations, to ask Levesque about any other subject last night in particular is a disservice to the industry and the people in it.
Even if further questions produce only bits of transparency or non-answers, those responses and the media’s attention to the subject send a message to the public and business partners. If every question would’ve been about by far the most important story in wrestling this week (this decade?), it would’ve sent a more resounding signal regardless of the responses. Instead it feels like there’s some headroom where WWE can evade questions about sexual misconduct at the company, a possible cover-up, and instead get to talk about the great business run they’re on and how today’s product compares to the Attitude Era.
Having access carries a responsibility that sometimes matters less but last night mattered a lot, and half the questions to Levesque were about relatively trivial subjects.
I don’t mean to put anyone down. Many stories including this one involve complicated details. If you feel unsure what to ask, I find talking with other reporters about possible good questions helps. My DMs are open too and I had a dozen questions I could’ve shared.
If you’re afraid of losing access, I can only speak for myself: I have never been dissuaded before or after, and I think WWE anticipates what kinds of questions I’m going to ask before I’m called on, which they’ve done at each presser I’ve attended. And ultimately there are things more important than access, like transparency and accountability.
@GeekFTW he’s right. Despite all the goodwill in the world I may want to impart to the rest of WWE who were also under McMahon’s thumb for their entire existence, the response to this situation and all the others we don’t know about needs to be handled. For the good guys in the company, you have to throw off the habit of covering things up and show radical transparency and improvement.
100%. Given how close Vince got to top stars and how much sway he had over other execs and upper level staff, there is a hell of a lot of possibly poisonous apples in that bunch. As good as getting Vince out is/will be, that will be wasted if they clamp down and smother any future investigations. There is no way everyone left is clean.
