When news broke that Vince McMahon was named in the Janel Grant lawsuit, with a pattern of alleged abuse laid out plainly for the world to see over the 67-page document, it flipped the professional wrestling world on its head.
Some fans were shocked, having the wool suddenly pulled away from their eyes over a fixture of their childhoods not being the person they thought he was, while others were, shall we say, less so, as rumors and even reports of McMahon's bad behavior have been around for decades, with performers like Eric Young refusing to work under him from a moral standpoint.
Discussing the allegations against his former boss on Sunday Night’s Main Event, Matt Riddle noted that he personally wasn't surprised to learn of everything that came out against Mr. McMahon, as his on-screen character basically laid it all out in plain sight.
“Well, people say that (they were surprised), and granted I had no idea of anything going on. I don’t even politic my own matches. I show up and do my job. Honestly, if you watch any of his work from in-ring performances, the things he said and did, logic would tell you alone,” Matt Riddle explained via 411 Mania. “Especially, me, personally, all the good wrestlers that play good characters, that’s them. It might be turned up by ten or 100, but that’s them. When I see Vince do all the things he’s done from the 80s, 90s, early 2000s, I was not surprised. Some of it, a little, but yeah, the guy is a billionaire that owns a company. He’s done it all, seen it all, and wants to do more and see more. I don’t know, I’m not a billionaire. I wasn’t the dude (alleged in the lawsuit). Brock was the dude he was talking to. It wasn’t me. I really have no comment, other than that. I’m not surprised. I hear people say they’re surprised. I’m not surprised. The guy was a maniac.”
Looking back on some of the more, um, interesting angles featuring McMahon from the past 30 or so years, it really is wild how often he would rely on questionable morality in an attempt to entertain an audience, with storylines like Katie Vick, Trish Stratus barking like a dog, and, well basically everything featuring his daughter Stephanie McMahon aging like sour milk if they were ever acceptable at all. When even Matt Riddle, a man who has his own history of bad decisions, can clearly call that out, it's worth wondering how McMahon was able to survive a sale to TKO.
Bruce Prichard reveals what he can say about Vince McMahon.
Speaking of the Vince McMahon lawsuit, long-time WWE employee Bruce Prichard discussed the situation on his Something To Wrestle podcast… to a degree.
That's right, even if Prichard, who has worked for WWE since 2018 during his second stint with the promotion, wanted to talk about his former boss' actions, he can't do it, as he feels as though he can't comment on the situation, even if no one has forced him to stay quiet on the subject.
“I'm not at liberty to discuss any legal matters of the company whatsoever. To that, there is nothing that I can say. You can ask until you're blue in the face, and that's going to be your answer. I'm not involved, I'm not being sued, I'm not being accused of anything. It's a legal matter. Sometimes, it is as simple as –for those who believe– the explanation is needed. For those that don't, no explanation will do. That's kind of where we are,” Bruce Prichard explained via Wrestling Headlines.
“No one told me not to do anything on the podcast other than the simple fact that I work for a company that is involved in a lawsuit right now. I can't comment. Folks, if you work at a large company and your large company is being sued, there is very little you can say about it. If you do, that's a good way for you to lose your job.”
Would it have been incredibly interesting to see Prichard come out and speak against Mr. McMahon publically on his podcast? Totally, while plenty of wrestlers have commented on the situation already, most don't work for the company anymore, with the few who have being solely wrestlers instead of behind-the-scenes executives. Factor in the comments by Ronda Rousey that Prichard is effectively a proxy for Mr. McMahon, and it's not too surprising to learn that he wasn't willing to talk on the matter, even if he admission that he could technically do some talking if he wanted to is newsworthy in its own right.
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