Matt Connarton Unleashed: Vince McMahon scandal

But speaking of dirty business, to clean your arrow with something good every once.

That's true. Yeah, that's true. That is about to get dirty

up. Well, let's uh, let me give the H the studio line

and then we'll h we'll get into uh yeah, and then we are going

to shift gears six o three two five six seven six three two five six

seven. Now on the on the positive end of this, uh what we're

what we're going to uh, because it's actually so the really the really bad

news that has been going on, uh that that broke within the last twenty

four hours. Actually uh is follows really good news for of course w W

E H. They've got their new deal with Netflix, which will begin in

January. If that doesn't get if it doesn't, right, that could be

in jeopardy now. Although I although I don't, I don't think so.

I don't think so. Yeah, but all right, I won't say anything

more yet. Oh I'm sorry, Jenny. I didn't mean no, No,

I meant I didn't want to go to jump ahead too far. Dave

Meltzer actually yesterday talked about this on the Observer Radio. And the Netflix deal

is done. There's an understanding that Netflix knew that something more was probably going

to come out. Really Yeah, see I wonder about that because Slimjim just

pulled their sponsorship overnight. Yeah and yeah, but I assume they're going to

unposit now. Well, I don't know today's the event. I mean,

we're talking about WrestleMania. No where are we talking about Royal Rumble? Thank

you? I have my name is mixed up, So that's supposed to happen

today's Slim Jim was the big sponsor. Now they're like, I don't know

about this, so their logos off some stuff. We'll have to wait until

tonight to see whether or not they end up coming out of it or not.

But if they don't, I don't think that's a positive sign for the

Netflix steal. I think the Netflix steel will be will be fine. I

think, Uh, the positive part of the Netflix deal is it's not set

to start for another year, right right, And realistically, Like I'm gonna

try to be delicate here, but it's early in the rock star hasn't taken

hold. Is this really shocking to anyone? Yeah, and not shocking that

he has done heinous things as far as women are concerned, But how bad

it is, how depraved it is. Yeah, I's that's pretty. As

a woman, I'm I just feel horribly sick the more I hear, Well,

let me just okay, So I wanted to the Netflix steel. For

anyone who doesn't know, it's what is it? I think it's uh it's

like uh a five billion dollars or something. It's an outrageous some of them

for ten years, which is unheard of usually these kind of any year.

Netflix. The way they took a pay cut, they're making less money to

be on Netflix. Are they doesn't work out to less money up front?

Yes? Oh okay. I don't understand why they're doing these multiple platforms.

I mean part of the special pay per views are on Peacock, the SmackDown

is on Hulu, Well you get more and now Raw is on Well you

get more money that way on all these different us as. Somebody who supposed

to fans of the show are having to run in chase to find all the

different iterations. This should be in one place. Yeah, that'll never happen.

It's particulars. It used to be that way. It used to be

one place. Now you don't know where to go to watch anything. And

then there's gonna be a couple of months or so that Rod just has nowhere

to live. When the Netflix goes into effect, the network will move to

Netflix, right I did read that. Yes, so all of the network

content, including the premium live events will be on housed on Netflix. SmackDown

is moving to USA, yeah, and NXT is moving to the CW.

Really there's another one. Yeah, oh yeah. Well, Hans in the

chat room says we are in the biggest streaming wars ever before He's right.

Everybody's he's scrambling for the same content, which is good for the content makers,

that's for certain. Well, they've they've been a very lucky company WWE,

because they signed so when they signed their last set of TV rights steals,

it was right before it was shortly before the pandemic, and of course

no one foresaw what was coming, but they signed what at that point were

their biggest television rights deals ever. Had that not happened, I don't know

how that company would have survived the pandemic because that was so those deals were

worth so much money that that's what kept them afloat. Really. I mean,

they probably would have survived anyway, but it would have been a lot

tougher, so they were very very lucky. Well, it helped that DeSantis

made them all special. They could actually work in Florida, right, and

then they did smart with all the different cameras that they had where people could

end up being one of the heads. Yeah. I thought that was actually

a good idea. Yeah, they actually ripped that off from the NBA.

Really. Oh that's right, I remember. I remember that. Now did

that for the their playoff bubble and wwe just kind of ripped it off.

But I mean the NBA is just like, well, it isn't proprietary and

right, you know, we're we're trying to run our playoffs in a compound

in Florida. This is somethings that just don't work with on an audience crowd,

you know. I mean, it doesn't hit you the same when somebody

flips somebody and there's nothing in the background sharing it on. Yeah, same

thing. The NBA didn't really really care. But the rumor, and it's

a rumor, is that ESPN didn't really care for it. And that's what

really kind of led to everyone's asked, well, why didn't ESPN jump in

on the new rights deal? ESPN was pretty much there's been things WWE is

done and ESPN's just like, yeah, we're not doing it. Well,

it's always a little awkward anyway for Ears. I know that at various times

they've had different segments in WWE content, but it's always a little bit awkward,

I think for ESPN because it's you know, there's always going to be

a segment of not only a segment of their audience, which has dwindled over

the years. I know ESPN's had a lot of problems, but also too,

I'm sure there's a lot of people within that company who are like,

uh, why do we have to Why are we doing this fake stuff?

This isn't real sports? Why are we getting involved in this? You know

what I mean. I'm sure there's people in that in that company who really

are resistant to doing anything with wrestling. So but well, and also keep

in mind that one of their tough personalities has been very, very outspoken against

WWE. Jonathan Kachman. Yeah, yeah, I saw I saw an interview

that he did. Uh well, he was very critical. It was so

yeah, I so ESPN. I mean people there are people in the chad

who may not care or too young to remember this. ESPN was the first

cable company to have pro wrestling on its network. They had the a W

A Yeah, that's what kept the a W A aflow for much longer than

any of the other territories that Vince put out a business because they had the

ESPN deal. They had they had one hour a day on ESPN from three

to four. What an odd time, thought, and so yeah, it

kept them afloat for the longest time. Wasn't wasn't come to think of it,

wasn't world Class Championship Wrestling also on ESPN or ESPN two during the during

the eighties. No World Class was not World Class was simulcast by the sports

network because I saw it. I know my I know the cable system uh

my family had when I was a kid. Somehow I was able to see

World Class because the theme song is forever etched in my memory. That Oh

yeah, it's like it's stuck in my brain forever. Yeah. I believe

they were a part of TSN. Okay, not a national sports network or

a national cable network. I mean in ESPN, wasn't the first obviously TBS

and TBS was with World Championship Wrestling. But outside of TBS and Turner,

ESPN took they needed content in their early days and A w A already had

filmed programming. So what's the best way to get content? Well, programming

you don't have to pay production calls four. All you have to pay is

for rights to broadcast, and that's all the ESPN had to pay. But

that kept the AWA afloat for their final I would say two and a half

three years that in vern constantly milking the equity of his lakes lake front home

in Minnesota, verne Gania. One other interesting thing about the Netflix deal I

was reading too that I didn't know initially is it Apparently there's a couple of

five year options worked into it. So for example, at at at the

five year point, it's a ten year deal. But at the five year

mark, if Netflix isn't happy about anything, they can exercise an option to

kick WWE to the curb. And at the end of the ten years they

have a five year option where they can they can extend Netflix as the option

to extend for another five years at the same rate. I think they're really

smart about making it a fifteen year deal if they want to. What's really

shocking about this and this wouldn't have happened e Vince was in control. As

much as I loath and detest that man since an infamous November Night in nineteen

ninety seven, this deal wouldn't have been made Evince was in charge because it

is a very very friendly deal to Netflix. Everyone sees five billion dollars,

but it's over theoretically a ten year period. WWE has to handle all production

and that's a very key part of the deal. The Netflix doesn't incur any

production costs and what you said, they can extend it and opt out of

it. Yeah, so it's a very friendly deal to Netflix, which leads

me to believe that WWE wasn't getting the offers they felt were were worth it,

or that they felt were fair, which I believe is due to all

of this Vince McMahon's stuff and once again chalks up to his ego and selfish

nature as a businessman, and I get it. All CEOs have to have

an ego and all of this other stuff. Fine, cool, but there's

a difference between self ego and when your ego hurts the company, and that's

what it's done for the last two years to WWE. They are a damaged

product because of Vince is the ego, and then there's sadism. Seriously,

yeah, I mean this is beyond anything. Well, let me just let

me just say about that before we before we go any further too, So

for anyone who hasn't been following, obviously, because of the venue that we're

in and the time of day and several different factors, we're not going to

go in any details here about what Vince the allegations against him are specifically,

but you can certainly if you're not aware. I mean at this point,

I mean, this is you know, it's pretty big news. If you

just google the name Vince McMahon, it will come up. There's a there's

a what's that? Or Janelle Grant or Janelle Grant. Yes, there's a

very detailed article in the Wall Street Journal that is that I would recommend if

if people want something really in depth or or I'm sorry, what Wall Street

Journal has a paywall? Oh that's true, that's true. Well, well,

if you just go into Google news and sometimes it Google News has an

entire page of nothing but articles about this, and multiple articles are going into

great detail. I think it's easy just to use a broader term, especially

because we don't want anybody to say anything on air that could upset anybody to

say that it's it's pretty sadistic and pretty bad. And you know, if

you do have younger ones who are wrestling fans, you might want to watch

their news feeds because this is pretty bad. And I know you wouldn't want

your young ones reading about the things that he is accused of doing. As

me, it's like in I as I'm going to say as just as a

man, not even as a heterosexual male, just a man in general.

And I say heterosexual male because I date women and I may not understand them,

but I do understand how how they should be treated. And as a

man, it's disgusting to me and it makes me ashamed two at the least

be a man, and then secondly to be a pro wrestling fan. Well,

and let me just let me just say again for people who don't know,

if you haven't been paying attention, you know, Vince wash He's been

accused prior, you know, the sexual harassment and paying hush money and and

all kinds of things. But what what has come to light in the past

twenty four hours is is far beyond it's it's far beyond that. I mean,

I'll use a little bit of coded language, but you know, if

I if I say things like misconduct or assault or even criminal or even yeah,

either criminal level or or even or even the term I'm trafficking again,

Uh, go ahead and assume some of the worst. It's that bad,

and it and it's and it's all, it's all very shocking, and even

assuming the worst, you're selling it short. Yeah, it's it's I'm I'm

stunned. I'm I'm truly stunned. I want to I do want to add,

though, there are some text messages of evidence from McMahon to Janelle that

are absolutely undeniable, just undeniable the things that he says. It's pretty disgusting

about those messages. Jenny, and I said, you know, in my

college days, I I you know, you get into the frat boy mentality.

And I'm sorry to say, but this does exist in our societ a

lot more than people realize it does. I'm not excusing the behavior when I

say frat boy mentality either, and I hope no one thinks that I think

that minimum don't get sucked into that. And I'm, like I've said some

things that when after I've sent the text or I've said it, I cringe.

I'm like, this is so bad that I don't feel bad for the

cringe stuff I've said. There. There is this existence out there, and

we've we've heard more stories over the last probably six months of women being found

chained to floors, women being found in boxes hidden away. That element does

exist in our society. And when it's somebody like this who has so much

power and so much public notoriety, it's uncovering some of the darkest parts of

our society that have existed since mankind, and unfortunately that has it's that's just

men usurping women, telling your that happens. And when it's somebody like this

was so powerful, he's and and he's quoted as saying things to her in

the very beginning, like I don't want you to just be an employee.

I want to I want you to have a better life. Here we should

we should point out because you mentioned the very beginning, Yes, the way

this all started was apparently this is this is actually this is a yes,

this is this is a very important part of the story because apparently, and

there's a pattern with him too, with this. Apparently she was down on

her life. She's far from the first woman to ever have a jugative.

Yeah, she was down on her luck. She was struggling financially. She

had parents who had just died. She was their full caregiver. Yep.

So she was homeless. So she was, uh, well, she was

living. Apparently she was living in an apartment building where Vince also rented an

apartment, so she was Eventually he moved her and gave her a place to

live. She didn't have a place. He handed a luxury car. Yeah,

so yeah, so he took advantage of her. So he would do

things like when he was going to be around her, he would be,

you know, coming out of the shower and a towel. Oh, give

me a hug, give me a hug, Let me give you a kiss,

doing things like this to slowly groomer in, groomer in, and then

you would all, you know, and then go from there. And it

happens in what they're talking about, and what happens in situations of abuse like

this is called trauma bonding, where somebody is groomed and traumatized in such a

way that they feel entrapped and caged by the other individual that they can't get

out, that there is no way out, and it's it's devastating, and

it takes what little self esteem you might have had left away and you become

a puppet in that person's hands. I read something in the Daily Mail articles

and the Daily Mail probably was the most in depth because they're in the United

Kingdom and they don't fall under rules of uh, what you can't print,

what you can't print like we do. One of the one of the disturbing

parts is that he paid for surgery, cosmetic surgery for her. Yeah.

And it's not just that, it's the it's the the leading up to that.

It's, Oh, I want to get this for you. Oh,

this would make that better. You know where they grew. He pushes her

in, push her in, push her in. No, I'll cover everything,

I got everything. Oh, you're going to be so beautiful with us,

right. It's not like, hey, I'm gonna get this for you.

She just jumps in. There's a process to this where that control over

and she loses control of her own life and becomes a puppet into his hands

while simultaneously purchasing her silence as well. Exactly exactly and He's done this numerous

there's this past. He has a history, a proven history. There's multiple

instances incidents excuse me, of him paying hush money to women. And you

know, I mean, this is it's not sadly is not a secret.

And there have been other people implicated in this. Oh yeah. And it

reminds me of the story years ago about the airplane the airplane story that the

airplane ride from hell Yep, wasn't that what it was called? The plane

ride from hell y Yeah? And that involved particular wrestler that's coming back up

again too, Rock Lesner, Rock Lesner. Well, also, let's look

at the fact that, I mean, I just recently watched the Dark Side

of the Ring episode on that and interesting, I watched that one too.

Rick Flair A let I mean borderline I mean, or depending on your opinion,

at the very least, it was borderline sexual assault is what he's accused

of. You look at the guys that were fired from that plane ride.

Rick Flair wasn't one of them. Rick Flair wasn't even fined. This is

god No, Lesar wasn't fine. The big stars got to walk away with

their little fun and games and suffer no consequences, therefore being told there's nothing

wrong with that behavior, right. You know, what I'm saying is that

the atmosphere that Vince perpetrates. I mean, let's and it was acceptable,

though. You gotta put this in Put this in the context of the era.

Okay, it was acceptable for men to rule over women in the office

space. That was normalized behavior. I used to do agency work. Here's

go, and I got sent to a lawyer's office and I was supposed to

answer his phone, you know, type any letters he needed. And he

called me into his office and had me come over to his desk. He

wanted to supposedly show me something, and then he proceeded to put his hand

on my leg and started to rise it up, to which I jumped aside,

left, never went back, and got fired because I refused to go

back. But it was normalized. I mean, they were saying things to

me like, oh, it's he's just he's just he's just a little freshy,

no big deal. You know. Don't you want the job, don't

you want money, don't you want to eat? I mean, that's what's

over your head, right control. Yeah, Well, there's also more broadly

too, there's there's the element of if you are, the more powerful you

are, the less likely you are to face any accountability. Right, so

again with you know, the more the more powerful people on the plane ride,

the more important they were, the less likely they were to face any

sort of punishment for their behavior. I was disgusted to hear about that when

I heard about that with brock Lesnar. Now that these new allegations are coming

out with him, it's even worse for me. And I'm wondering if that's

why we really haven't seen him out there as much as we were. You

know, maybe they knew this was coming, so to speak. He was

supposed to return tonight. Well that happens, I would assume it's not going

to It's up in the air. They want lem Gin back. They brought

it, they better not bring him in. I don't think that's going to

help them with any of their sponsors, if they have any named individuals showing

up on screen. I mean, the the issue they run into there,

unfortunately, and this is the evil business side of this. Brock Leisner's contract

is fully guaranteed. And what do you mean, I mean there's no outclause.

Wwe has you sure about that they don't have a behavior clause like they

did with You don't think there's some kind of behavior clause in there after all

the things they've gone through. I mean no, I mean, if they've

never had one before, I doubt they had one when they re signed him.

I mean, they were still under Vince's control when they resigned him.

And I will say this about brock Lesnar As of right now, it's only

allege. There isn't any proof that Brock did anything. There isn't any text

messages from Brock or anything that I've seen. It's all second hand accounting from

Vince. And I mean, I'm sure there's evidence if he's named, but

the evidence hasn't been put out there against him, is what I will say.

Yeah, I think he's referred to in documents as a former UFC champion.

Evince was trying to resign, so that that narrows it down pretty quickly.

My prediction is we do not see him again. I don't think we

brock lesser again. I mean, I would agree with that, but again,

that's just another example of Vins hurting the business. Because now, I

mean, you're going to at the very least because you're gonna owe him some

money for doing absolutely nothing. But what's really interesting about this is the victim

Janelle Griant, sorry the alleged victim, because it's all allegations right now.

Is she said she was promised three million on this NDA. Yeah, but

she only got one million of it when all of this started. It was

due to in the books this was listed as a three million dollar NDA payout.

My thing is, where's the other two million? If you have three

million listed as a payout, where's the other two This is where Vince could

be in some major legal issues if the FTC wants to get involved, because

that was information given to shareholders. That's defrauding your shareholders. That is a

white collar felony. H wasn't there some kind of investigation going on anyway with

the FDC or the SEC or somebody launched an investigation headed by Stephanie McMahon Levac,

which very interestingly enough, they never contacted Janelle Graham. I know I

read that. That was shocking to me. Like Stephanie McMahon who got on

her pedestal and they had the Allways Women's pay per view and said things like

women have been marginalized in our sport for so long, mainly by your father,

who had a woman get on all fours in her undergarments and bark like

a dog on national TV. But that's in the past, and just put

herself as a champion for women in pro wrestling, and you know, and

she was one of them that changed the women's tournament from the fabulous Mullah Invitational

to the May Young Invitational because of the allegations against Mulah. And it's like,

Wow, what a load of crap. If you cared so much about

women's rights, Stephanie McMahon, if you really cared as much as you say,

the first phone call you would have made while you were in charge of

that investigation would have been to Janelle Grant or at the very least her legal

representatives. You made none of the above you investigated, But to be fair,

she did question her father and John Moronidis. Yeah, so yeah.

Honestly, I think the only recourse for WWE and Endeavor is they gotta cut

ties with anyone that with Vince and anyone that was attached to Vince during this

time or came back when Vince did his hostile takeover to come back right before

the sale of the company. Well, from what I've read, that's their

plan, right, Ari Emmanuel says, we're gonna We're gonna get rid of

anybody who knew. Anybody who knew anything about this, anybody who was involved,

you know at all, is out of here, is gone, which

I think is what they should do. You know, any anybody who knew

about it and kept their mouth shut and and you know, uh, they

they should be gone. Get rid of them, get them out of there.

Absolutely agree this. This is disgusting stuff. And this is if you

look into the history of the wwe WWF and I don't mean the company with

the Panda bear, right, there's there's a history of this stuff, not

just with Vince, but with Vince's underlings. Pat Patterson for many years has

been accused of sexually harassing male wrestlers, male ring attendant, the Ring Boys

scandal. Yep, nothing ever happened. Fabulous Moolah who Vince loved a death

accused of heinous things. There's a dark side to the ring about things she

did to these women that were absolutely horrible and detestable. This is not one

man, This is a culture. And when it's a culture, you gotta

tear out the foundation, bulldoze the house and rebuild it. And I'm sorry

if you know. There's some big name guys that are involved in WWE right

now. Paul Leavec formerly known as Triple H. If he knew of any

of this, gone, Sean Michaels, hbk runs NXT. If he knew

of this, he's gone. Undertaker, who's a brand ambassador. He knew

about this? Kick Rocks dead Man. I hope, yeah, I hope

none of those guys knew anything about him. Nick Con, I think Nick

CON's gone. Really, Nick Con, as Vince's right hand man for many,

many, many many years, being groomed to take over for Vince,

didn't know any of this. There's absolutely no way with knowing that. How

close Vince McMahon keeps his inner circle, there is no way that this is

Nick Con had no idea, right. I don't know how much he knew,

But if he knew it was going If you knew it was going on

and you said nothing, you're complicit in the act. I agree with you

there. I agree with you there. This is awful. It's horrible,

and it's reprehensible, and what sucks to me the most is that this is

the worst that's going to happen to Vince because of this, if we go

back in the annals of history, the pain and suffering he has caused.

And I said this in a private chat to both you and Jenny and a

couple others. You know, the families of the family of Owen Hart,

Nancy Argento, who Jimmy Superflies Snooka, murdered Invince allegedly more than likely bribe

law enforcement in Allentown, Pennsylvania to keep it under wraps. On down the

line, Vern Gania, Sam Munchick, the lives he ruined, superstar Billy

Graham, the bodies of the wrestlers whose blood, broken bones, damaged joints

that his billion dollar empire was built on. They're sitting there and I can

only imagine they're saying, it sucks what he did. But what have we

been telling you? Uh uh interesting? Yeah, what have been saying?

Look at what this man did to me, Look at what he did to

my life. Look like this is a pattern of abuse, not just on

females. And I am not trivializing what he did here, no, God,

we're all horrified, But you look at it, at the abuse of

his employees that he put through. You're hurt. Here, here's some pills.

Go out and do your job right. Well, I oh sorry,

go ahead, Eric. It's just it's sad that it's took this woman to

go through the absolute horrors she went through for people to finally realize what a

degenerate, ego, maniacal, scumbag, detestable human being Vincent Kennedy McMahon really

is. Yeah. Absolutely, no, it is. It's it's quite shocking,

and it's it's just awful. Well, Eric, we uh, we

gotta start to wrap up. We're gonna be crossing into the second hour.

We've got a great band coming in after the winter. But uh, but

I appreciate you joining us this morning to talk about this. You know,

it really is uh And I I really, Jenny, I want to thank

you for adding, you know, a personal element to it because you know,

I don't know if you picked up on this. I am a guy,

really, yeah, I can't give the female perspective on it, no,

So yeah, I mean, I I really think, I mean,

I think it's a discussion that could go any longer. And I really things

that Anning Radio some of these details. I mean this isn't for Matt Connorton

unsheathed. Oh yeah, like like like I said earlier, if you you

know, if you want to know the details, or if you're or I

should say this too. For anyone who's hearing this and just and thinking that

it's you know, just more sexual and agree with whatever I mean. I

mean, that's uh, that's I will personally invite any of the listeners to

direct message me and I can send them the Daily Mail articles. Yeah,

no, what what I what I wanted to say is for anyone who's just

kind of assuming that you know, this is more just more of the same

that that has already come out, it's uh, which was bad enough,

No, this is this is far worse. To really understand the evil that

Vince was involved in, you've gotta you've you've got to see, uh,

you've got to read these articles. Like I said, you know this this

would this is not the appropriate place to get into the details of that.

But but but if you're but for anyone who's doubting or sort of downplaying it

in your own mind, or or even if you've got like an old school

sort of you know, misogynistic, Oh, boys will be boys, type

of Yeah, this is not that. Look look look into this, and

you'll you'll realize pretty quickly this is this is really really bad. And all

of this has come out within the last like forty eight hours or so publicly,

like I mean, it was, it's beyond shocking. It's disgusting,

it's evil, it's cool, it's sadist, it really is. It's just

shocking as heck that this is what's been going on all these years. I

just thought of this, and what disturbs me the most is that this will

eventually go away. Janelle Grant will get money out of this, but no

dollar amount that can redeem her mental redeem her mental state, redeem her feeling

of self, self worth, redeem what Vince McMahon allegedly took away from her.

They're just I mean, a lot of credit goes out to her,

have courage to to say exactly Jenny, to say, you know what,

No, there's going to be good that comes out of this, because what

I'm gonna do is I'm going to help people in the same position. She

has said that that that's oh absolutely. There's a really great article about her

saying that and trying to make a space for other women to come forward.

I mean she's given details and things that people have suffered through similar types of

things but never talked about it publicly. She's opening that door and starting those

discussions. And that's where we've got to begin to make things like this stop,

right, And I mean where it all starts is Matt, you hit

it on the head. We got to get rid of the old boy's mentality.

Yep, in every aspect of society. Yes, very much. So,

it's getting there. We're getting there. We can't. Boys will be

boys is no more when it comes to this. That's that's what got Janelle

Grant there in the first place. Is so many people say, no,

what's Vince being Vince? Well yeah again, tell that to Janelle Grant in

his litany of other victims both of us, uh, sexual misdeeds and other

misdeeds. Right, all right, we go, we gotta go. Eric.

Thank you so much, my friend, and we look forward to your

film review next week. Yes, thank you, Yes, I look forward

to doing it. And thank you for having me, Matt. Nice discussing

with you and Jenny as always. Oh, thank you, We appreciate you,

my friend. Have a good day, guys, all right, Eric,

you gotta take care. Bye bye,

Game Plan