Shawn Michaels has shared his thoughts on the allegations facing Vince McMahon.
One week ago, former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a lawsuit against now ex-TKO Executive Chairman Vince McMahon, along with former Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis, alleging sex trafficking and sexual abuse in graphic detail.
At today’s NXT Media Call ahead of this weekend’s Vengeance Day show, Shawn Michaels was by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful about the protections in place for talent in NXT that could be impressionable or vulnerable in the wake of the lawsuit.
“You can always improve on that, but look, it’s an incredibly sad situation. As everybody knows, I’ve got absolutely nothing to do, and gladly so with the corporate stuff that goes on. I have a focus on NXT, the young men and women that come through these doors, and we do, I think we foster a safe and supportive atmosphere down here. I know that they reinstalled and upgraded the, I think in 2022, some of those regulations and whatnot. But look, we’re always conscious of that, and one thing that I do, it’s incredibly important to support the talent and give them a safe working environment. I like to think we do that absolutely. But look, we will always continue to be better about that. Im very glad to say that I think we do a really a fantastic job down here.”
-Shawn Michaels
Staying on the topic of what the company are doing to manage situations such as this one moving forward, Stephanie Hypes of Bodyslam asked Michaels if there is anything in place to make sure there is a safe space for women should a situation come up in the future, to which HBK revealed that there are indeed policies in place, with these taking into account that talent may feel more comfortable sharing their experiences in an external environment.
“We absolutely have all of those policies in place. As I said, we upgraded them in 2022. I have no doubt that they’ll be looking at continuing to improve those, but we absolutely do. We have, you know, numerous people on our medical team for outreach to go to outside of the Performance Center. We do understand that I can look at a talent, and my head writer and my coaches, as they do, we can tell them to tell us the truth or express to us what’s going on. But as you know, they may not feel comfortable doing that, so we also provide help outside of here as well and have people that we can work with to get them in a, what we feel is a complete objective environment and not associated with the WWE or NXT in that respect.”
-Shawn Michaels
Michaels was also quizzed on the subject by Jon Alba, who asked if he has had any conversations with any of the NXT talent/employees regarding the situation with Vince.
“Well, so look, we obviously.. everyone is aware of the situation and understands it. Like I said, it’s an incredibly sad situation. I can sit here and say it sucks, but we’ve always, again, and I’ve mentioned it to you all in the past, we take that very seriously. Look, I take all of the youth that come through here incredibly seriously because this is a tough line of work, regardless of what’s going on.”
-Shawn Michaels
Following the revelation of last week’s lawsuit, fans online had been hopeful that members of wrestling media would ask the tough questions that need to be asked to those in power, with Triple H having also been asked about the subject at the Royal Rumble post-show press conference.
Regarding journalists asking figures like himself and Triple H on the matter, Michaels encouraged members of the media to do so, emphasising the importance of openness and getting the truth out there.
“We absolutely encourage the openness and again, telling everyone to please tell us the truth and let us know how we can help. That’s something that has been here for a long time and we continue to do our best to improve on that because it is, it’s one of the most important things to me is to be able to ask those questions you’re afraid to ask. And so we certainly empower them to do that and give them the opportunity to do that.”
-Shawn Michaels
Those looking to read Janel Grant’s lawsuit in full can do so here, although this comes with a trigger warning, as some of the details included may disturb readers.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on the allegations facing Vince McMahon as soon as we hear more.
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