ANYONE WATCHING WWE FILTH DESERVES VINCE MCMAHON’S WRONGDOING

I’ve never observed the food poisoning of human life, but we all should ask why it took so long to remove McMahon from wretched power — a question answered by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Ari Emanuel

     The people who watch professional wrestling are worthy of jock rot. WWE is not sports, not entertainment and not intended for the human palate. Never have I watched a match, a mania or Hell in a Cell. Yet, enough rodents exist and captivate networks including Netflix, which pays $5 billion to program a weekly show called “Raw,” and NBCUniversal, which spends $1.4 billion on “Friday Night SmackDown.”

     Long ago, it should have occurred to viewers and providers that Vince McMahon — the 78-year-old creep who founded the company, turned performers into clownish creatures and exploited the scum for $3 billion in net worth — has criminalized his racket into something unwatchable and contemptuous. In a vile era where we take down the worst Hollywood rogues, who was shocked Friday that he was accused of sexual assault, sex trafficking, rape and workplace harassment by another former employee? Finally, McMahon resigned from the board of WWE’s parent company.

     But shouldn’t he have been ejected from the operation years ago? Say, after WWE probed McMahon and realized he’d paid almost $20 million to women accusing him of sexual misconduct over 16 years. Explain that to the otherwise delightful movie star, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who appeared with McMahon last Tuesday at the New York Stock Exchange. This was a happy way to announce Johnson as a new WWE board member by McMahon, still in place for three more days as executive chairman of the higher board. Said The Rock: “I’m very motivated to help continue to globally expand our TKO, WWE, and UFC businesses as the worldwide leaders in sports and entertainment.”

     “Proud,” McMahon said of the association.

     Never mind his villainy. Johnson ached to build his portfolio as did Endeavor, the Beverly Hills agency with paws throughout sports and the movie business. McMahon continued to use voting shares to remain on the board of TKO Group, allowing him to sell WWE to Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, who packaged wrestling with his majority ownership of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. On any night you want to smear your brains off the planet, watch WWE and UFC. And we now can say Ari is more influential, if that’s the word, than brother Rahm, who isn’t seen much as U.S. ambassador to Japan.

     How troubling to see Johnson and Emanuel swerve away from McMahon’s past? As pointed out to the Wall Street Journal by attorney Ann Callis — who represents the former WWE employee, Janel Grant — those men knew all about his “history of depraved behavior.” In another takedown of Johnson, Vanity Fair quoted his 2018 tweet that he would protect women: “To every woman out there ’round the world — all ages and races — I proudly stand by your side to honor, protect and respect.” Then the publication quoted Emanuel as referring to allegations against Harvey Weinstein as “disgusting” in 2017. And McMahon’s allegations were not?

     “It seems as if the (Miramax) board knew and something should have been done about it a lot earlier,” Emanuel said. “Harvey didn’t treat anybody decently but what he did to people that were less powerful, and anybody that does that to anyone less powerful, nobody should put up with that. … And if people did know about it, and it seems that people did know about it based on the way that they wrote the contracts, that’s not appropriate.”

     So, will you look at The Rock differently? Think of Endeavor differently? Said Callis of her client: “The sexual slavery she endured, the devastating consequences that happened to her physically and mentally when she was going through this and still is suffering through this with PTSD — she had suicidal ideation. This is in its own class of the depravity that she had to endure.”

     It’s too late for the WWE president, Nick Khan, to wipe his company clean. A former sports media agent, he wrote an email to employees after McMahon’s resignation: “He will no longer have a role with TKO Group Holdings or WWE.”

     And McMahon? “I stand by my prior statement that Ms. Grant's lawsuit is replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and is a vindictive distortion of the truth,” he said in a statement. “I intend to vigorously defend myself against these baseless accusations, and look forward to clearing my name. However, out of respect for the WWE Universe, the extraordinary TKO business and its board members and shareholders, partners and constituents, and all of the employees and Superstars who helped make WWE into the global leader it is today, I have decided to resign from my executive chairmanship and the TKO board of directors, effective immediately.”

     If you have contributed to WWE’s commercialism, with one billion households in 180 countries, feel real good about yourself today. Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Rhea Ripley — go for it. But as WrestleMania 40 arrives in April, set for Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, guess who’s being posed as a participant.

     The Rock.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.