Janel Grant issues statement on anonymous emails sent to WWE board
Janel Grant released a statement regarding anonymous emails that were sent to the WWE Board of Directors in April 2022.
The emails were sent anonymously by someone claiming to be a friend of Grant and alleged misconduct by Vince McMahon and former WWE executive John Laurinaitis. The emails led to WWE’s board investigating McMahon, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal in June 2022.
Grant posted to Instagram on Wednesday that she did not send the emails and was not involved in sending them.
She also wrote, “There is no person who knew me in life pre-dating 2019 who could write this,” and denied claims in the emails pertaining to her having experienced homelessness and drug addiction.
Grant wrote:
“The Anonymous Emails
Reading these for the first time took a sledgehammer to my mental health. I feel like a Taylor Swift lyric and wonder if someone caged me just to call me crazy. I’m not wired to understand why someone would write them. But I am trained to notice the use of hair splitters and spin.
About Anonymous Email 1
What happened before 2019:
While caring for my parents – two sets of illness, medical debt, hospitalizations – they declared bankruptcy and we lost our family home. Life was such a disaster that Hurricane Sandy dropped a tree on the house that we were in the process of losing.
What never happened: No living on the street. No addictions to “percs.” No rehab. There is no person who knew me in life pre-dating 2019 who could write this.
The spin: A friend? I see a trick to steer public perception. Homeless? I shared my background at work. Rehab? I shared my experience with grief counseling at work. Addiction? I shared that quitting nicotine lozenges wasn’t fun at work. A threat to expose info? It’s a highly reactive environment with security vendors in place. The rest of the email? It repackages years of time and illogical events involving a lot of people who have eyeballs into a logic sounding storyline with only a few people.
This email doesn’t contain allegations. This email is a storyline.
Who sent this? I don’t know. But public documents show a reimbursement of $20,098,000 in legal costs related to a special committee’s investigation on 3/19/23.
About Anonymous Emails 2 and 3
I’m pretty sick over whether this is implying a revenge porn situation and whether it extends to Deadspin. A media company. I’m sick over whether this is implying I was being filmed and didn’t know it. I’m sick over whatever it is that I don’t know.”
Grant also included screenshots and exerpts from the anonymous emails in her post, available below:
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.