On Friday, Vince McMahon resigned from his positions as TKO Executive Chairman and on the TKO Board of Directors.
The resignation came after a lawsuit was filed by Janel Grant against Vince McMahon, WWE and former executive John Laurinaitis. The lawsuit accuses McMahon of sex trafficking, emotional abuse, and sexual assault. McMahon has denied the allegations.
Triple H, who is the son-in-law of Vince McMahon and worked alongside him for nearly 30 years as a talent and an executive, faced the media at the WWE Royal Rumble press conference and was asked about the lawsuit.
Jon Alba, representing Fightful, asked Triple H about McMahon returning to the WWE board of directors in January 2023 after retiring as WWE CEO in June 2022 amid allegations of sexual misconduct and hush money. Triple H was asked what degree of knowledge they had at the time and how the situation might affect partnerships moving forward.
"I'm going to do exactly what you would expect me to do here. We just had an amazing week. Ten-year, $5 billion Netflix deal. The Rock joining our board. Just sold out the Royal Rumble and put 48,000 people in Tropicana Field. I choose to focus on the positive. Yes, there is a negative. I want to focus on that and keep it to that," he said.
Slim Jim paused promotional activities after the lawsuit became public, but continued its relationship when McMahon resigned.
Cameron Hawkins of The Ringer asked what steps are being done to make sure employees are safe and feeling that they aren't being taken advantage of by people in power.
"I'll give you the most generalized answer I can. Everything possible. That is a very important thing to us, a very important topic to us. It's as simple as everything possible," he said.
Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics asked if he read the lawsuit.
I did not. I did not. Cody mentioned it, we all found out real time when you were. That's the truth. I'll go back to what I said before. It's an amazing week for us. I don't even want to get bogged down in the negatives of it. I just want to focus on the positives and where we're going. We're at the most exciting time of the year for us and the most exciting point, to me, business-wise, that we've ever had," he said.
Readers can find comments from Grant's lawyer on the lawsuit by clicking here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
