Judge Allows Janel Grant’s Amended Lawsuit Against Vince McMahon and WWE to Move Forward

Janel Grant’s lawsuit against WWE, Vince McMahon, and John Laurinaitis is moving forward after a federal judge in Connecticut accepted her amended complaint.

According to Post Wrestling, Judge Sarah F. Russell approved Grant’s updated filing, which was re-submitted in January to add new details to her original claims of sex trafficking and sexual assault involving McMahon and Laurinaitis.

The court’s decision comes after McMahon’s attorneys argued that Grant’s amendments were in “bad faith” and only intended to “create media attention” by de-anonymizing certain WWE executives. Russell shot down that argument, stating, “Her newly pleaded facts do not deprive Defendants of their ability to timely assert that her claims are subject to arbitration.”

While the judge allowed Grant to revise her complaint, she also sided with WWE’s request to delay discovery — the process of exchanging evidence — until the court rules on whether the case should go to private arbitration. WWE claims the non-disclosure agreement Grant signed in January 2022 includes a clause mandating arbitration, but Russell will decide that issue after the defendants refile their motions by June 13.

Grant’s legal team, however, is celebrating a small victory. In a statement, they said, “We’re grateful that Judge Sarah Russell let the facts prevail today and granted our motion to amend Janel Grant’s complaint against Vince McMahon and WWE.”

The case was reassigned to Russell in January after Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer passed away. Russell’s order emphasized that the legal standard for this ruling isn’t about whether Grant’s amended complaint strengthens her claims but rather whether the added information is legally relevant. Since Grant isn’t introducing entirely new claims, Russell ruled her changes are not “futile.”

With the court now allowing Grant’s revised allegations to stand, the next battle will be over arbitration. WWE has until June 13 to refile its motions to move the case out of court, with Grant’s opportunity to respond by June 23.