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As Vince McMahon tries to sort out his many legal issues (while selling off approximately $1.5 billion worth of stock in TKO Group Holdings – the parent company of WWE), a couple of his former employees, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and John Cena, are under fire for allegedly continuing to associate with him.
Johnson, who was added to the TKO board of directors shortly after former WWE employee Janel Grant made numerous sexual abuse and sex trafficking accusations against McMahon in a bombshell lawsuit, and Cena, who admitted after the news broke that he still has a “great relationship” with McMahon, are reportedly still working with Vince.
“It’s shameful that Mr. Johnson and Mr. Cena would associate themselves with an individual with decades of allegations just like Janel’s,” a spokesperson for Janel Grant told RadarOnline.com in a statement.
“Behind-the-scenes support is louder than any public statement ever could be.”
According to a new report by NBC News, Vince McMahon, according to 11 people the news outlet and CNBC spoke to, has been spending his time traveling, eating out and keeping in touch with friends and associates. Naturally, all 11 of them declined to be named.
Since he resigned, McMahon has been in touch with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and John Cena, sources said. Johnson and Cena, both Hollywood superstars, are two of WWE’s biggest success stories.
Publicly, Johnson has thanked TKO and WWE executives regarding his addition to the TKO board earlier this year. In February, Cena told the radio host Howard Stern that “the whole thing is super unfortunate and it sucks,” while noting that he loves McMahon and has a “great relationship” with him. “But in the same breath,” he added at the time, “I’m also a big advocate of accountability.”
Cena and Johnson are both represented by the William Morris Endeavor agency, which is part of Endeavor Group — the majority owner of TKO.A spokesperson for Johnson declined to comment. A representative for Cena didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Supposedly, according to multiple WWE insiders, “McMahon hasn’t talked to his son-in-law, WWE creative chief and former superstar Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, or daughter, Stephanie McMahon-Levesque, regarding company matters.”
Vince McMahon has been taking trips to the Turks and Caicos Islands, as well as Italy, and hanging out with friends in Manhattan. Once source said simply, “He’s enjoying life.”
Meanwhile, in a statement released on Wednesday, Ann Callis, an attorney for Janel Grant, said, “Vince McMahon raped, trafficked and physically assaulted Janel Grant as part of his decades-long normalization of treating women within the WWE as objects. He might have thought that Janel would just walk away, but that wishful thinking couldn’t be further from the case.
“Every day we are focused on adding to our mountain of evidence, speaking with other victims, hiring renowned experts on sex trafficking/coercive control and preparing to vociferously litigate this case.”