Over the course of the last two weeks, the Wall Street Journal has published two bombshell reports on Vince McMahon issuing hush payments to several former WWE employees who he allegedly had sexual affairs with. One of these people was a former WWE “Diva.”
The WSJ reporters who broke the initial story, Joe Palazzolo and Ted Mann, recently appeared on “Busted Open Radio” to discuss when they first learned of the story, and whether they believe more will be coming out in the future.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
Palazzolo on when they first heard of the story: “Sources told us, it was in April, that WWE’s board was investigating this $3 million agreement with a woman who worked with McMahon. It basically took from April until we published our story, to firm that up, get additional sources, and understand what it was that the board was doing.”
Palazzolo on why they reported on it: “A couple of reasons. First of all, Wall Street Journal covers public companies. WWE is a public company, this is clearly a governance issue. We write for investors and when your board of directors is investigating something like this, it’s pretty interesting. The board, it’s a 12-member board, four of those members are insiders, meaning they work for the company, and eight are independent. When it comes down to it, Vince controls the company. There is a governance issue. It’s important for our readers to understand what’s going on. We knew these allegations, while the company is saying this is a consensual relationship with this woman, we started hearing about other issues that were not consensual. We feel those are things that need to be reported as well.”
Man on the power dynamic issues inherent in the situation: “It’s a public company and we’re operating in an environment where there is very little tolerance for any sort of relationship of this type between a CEO or an executive and someone who is a subordinate, even if it is consensual because the power dynamic that exists is something that is proved to be dangerous. That’s one of the ways in which all public companies have been representing that they are not really going to allow things like this to be swept under the rug anymore, and in this case, when it was something that was a total secret from the board, at least some members, we find it interesting and we want to dig and find out more.”
Palazzolo on the issues of power imbalance: “These are situations, even if the company is saying it’s consensual, talking about the first story, this person’s livelihood is depending on remaining in the good graces of her boss. The risk that you run with this power imbalance is that maybe someone is doing something that they don’t want to do, but they want to keep their job. On top of that, it’s happening at the top of the company. It’s happening with your chief executive and the relationship is well known within the company and they see that going on and you’re always talking about ‘tone from the top,’ but it’s a real thing. If you’re seeing your chief executive is permitting this kind of conduct, but engaging and leading the way in it, that’s a problem all the way down.”
Mann on reporting on the additional payments including the $7.5 million to the former wrestler: “As we were reporting out which settlement agreements were existent. The fact that there was one for $7 and a half million was eye-popping. That’s a figure that, in the murky world of NDAs, clearly suggests a big secret being kept. That was one of the red flags that signaled to us that we had to get to the bottom of what that was and what it was for. The actions behind it are pretty horrifying. To coerce a sex act and basically drive someone out of the company because they refused further advances, as this woman has alleged, that’s all terrible behavior.”
Palazzolo on when they first learned about the other payouts: “While we were reporting on the first story, we heard allusions to other agreements that had happened, so there were women who were on our radar as potentially having been in these agreements and we continued to report that out. We had a call list of 100 people who we bothered and we learned of the agreement from a source last month and we continued to report it out.”
Mann on some fans dismissing the story: “I think it’s a link to something we saw a lot on Twitter after the initial story, there was a lot of reactions saying, ‘Oh, what do you expect?’ or ‘Look at the character he plays. It’s essentially the same guy that this report depicts behind the scenes.’ There was this sense of, not everybody, but some people, ‘this shouldn’t be a surprise. That’s the whole brand.’ I think it’s a good question as to why this maybe hasn’t broken through as much as it would if we were writing about an NFL owner.”
Palazzolo on McMahon making his TV appearances after the first story: “He’s going to do what he’s going to do. It’s not going to affect what we’re doing in any way, shape, or form. What I’m more interested in is, how does the talent feel? How do his employees feel about him doing that? There is probably a range of opinions, but I imagine it doesn’t go over very well with them.”
Palazzolo on whether the story is done: “I think it’s probably not done. We’re continuing to report … you’re asking if there’s something bigger than a $7.5, that’s not something we have in our back pocket. We left it all out on the field on a story. There are a couple of things we are still reporting on.”
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(h/t – Fightful)
