Last January, a lawsuit was filed in federal court by a former WWE employee, Janel Grant, who is suing Vince McMahon for rape, sex trafficking, and battery (McMahon has repeatedly said he's innocent, though the case has yet to be settled one way or the other).
The document made for disturbing reading and detailed a relationship that allegedly turned sour fast. McMahon has been accused of sharing naked photos of Grant with other senior WWE employees, forcing her into group sex, verbally and physically degrading her, and causing injuries with sex toys. Some of this misconduct is said to have crossed state lines, hence the mention of trafficking.
McMahon has parted ways with WWE's new owners, TKO Holdings, and appears to have little interest in returning to the company he put on the map. It's also highly unlikely Endeavor would want him given the backlash guaranteed to follow any sort of comeback attempt.
There's already been some chatter online about McMahon starting some sort of entertainment company and podcast host Conrad Thompson claims to have heard rumblings of it being a professional wrestling promotion!
"Allegedly, Vince McMahon’s people have made contact with people who have experienced shooting wrestling, maybe cameramen," Thompson started. "And allegedly, I don’t know if this is real or not, but the rumor mill, the whispers, say perhaps FOX is holding a spot."
"I am saying we’ve heard rumors that Vince has a studio and that he’s hired a bunch of former WWE executives, and then we’re hearing rumors that he’s had conversations with cameramen who have experience shooting wrestling, which seems awfully specific, and if he’s just shooting traditional entertainment, why do you need a wrestling cameraman?" he continued. "And we’re hearing, well, maybe he’s got a spot with FOX."
WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff then chimed in to say, "I’ve heard some different things, and maybe I’ve even remembered to share with you another big, or I remember to share it, but yeah, little bits and pieces, comments here or there, that kind of make you go, 'Hmm.' But part of that is because I want to go, 'Hmm, what if?' Because, hey, it’s fun, but I just don’t see it."
"There’s too many there’s too many things that make sense in this rumor. You’ve connected some dots that are definitely dots and worthy of connectivity. But it’s not the complete picture because there’s a couple of other things that would have to happen that I just can’t imagine happening," the WCW icon concluded.
We're not sure why anyone would want to get into business with McMahon, though he has largely cleared his name from a criminal perspective so the civil matter is now a separate (somewhat private) issue.
Honestly, watching how disastrous McMahon's attempt at forming a WWE rival would kind of somewhat fun, particularly as his creative was what led to interest and ratings dropping to a point where AEW was nipping at WWE's heels a couple of years back.
Stay tuned for updates as we have them.