John Cena, Randy Orton Give Opposing Takes On Vince McMahon Allegations
Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis and WWE last month were named in a lawsuit by former employee Janel Grant, where she accused the former TKO chairman of sexual assault and trafficking, and those close to the company have had differing reactions.
Chief content officer Paul Levesque, aka Triple H, admitted during a post-Royal Rumble news conference that he didn’t read the lawsuit. WWE president Nick Khan issued a statement to employees and superstars but has not spoken publicly about McMahon heading into the company’s Elimination Chamber premium live event in Perth, Australia this Saturday.
Nicole Garcia and Brianna Garcia, aka the Bella Twins, admitted they had not known about the sexual assault allegations against their step-father-in-law Laurinaitis, who was fired by WWE in 2022.
Former WWE and WCW wrestler Paul Roma claimed to NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield this week that he and another former wrestler had heard worse allegations against McMahon than the ones in the Grant lawsuit.
John Cena, who dated Nicole Garcia from 2012-18 and is close with McMahon as one of WWE’s top stars, was on “The Howard Show,” where he briefly opened up about his relationship with McMahon amid the allegations. The WWE and Hollywood star claimed he was an advocate of “love, friendship and honesty” but also was a big advocate of accountability. And he explained how he’ll approach his relationship with McMahon.
“Right now, what I’m going to do is love the person I love, be their friend,” Cena told Stern, per Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston. “And by that it means like, ‘Hey, I love you, you have a hill to climb.’ There’s the saying of ‘you don’t know who your friends are until the (expletive) hits the fan’ or your back’s against the wall. That doesn’t make any of what’s going on any easier to swallow but just telling somebody like, ‘Hey, I love you. Man, this is going to be a hill to climb. We’re going to see what happens and that’s that.’ It sounds so cliche but it has to be one day at a time. But at the same token, I’ve openly said I love the guy, I have a great relationship with the guy, so that’s that.”
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Cena’s comments came off as robotic to WWE fans and were a stark contrast to how frank Randy Orton was when asked about McMahon’s allegations.
“I’ve got to say this: I wouldn’t be where I am without Vince McMahon taking a chance on me a handful of times,” Orton told Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso. “I would not be where I am today without Vince McMahon. But, (expletive), I’m reading this (expletive). What you’ve seen and read, I’ve seen and read. As far as commenting on that, it (expletive) hurts my heart. It hurts my heart.”
Orton also told the New York Post he had “no idea really what to think,” which while it isn’t a complete condemnation of McMahon, was a more human reaction.
It’s unknown who else in WWE past or present knew of McMahon’s allegations in either the Grant lawsuit or others in the past, but Grant and her lawyer hoped their legal action would encourage others to speak out and tell their stories.