Vince McMahon, who has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, is currently treated as someone with whom TKO group and WWE do not want to get involved. His face has now been blurred out of the company’s new video game. Publisher 2K confirmed that McMahon has been cut following the allegations of s*xual assault and trafficking against him made earlier this year.
McMahon left the organization following an ex-WWE employee’s lawsuit accusing him of assault. Apart from being the real-life boss of the wrestling promotion, McMahon also played the villainous Mr. McMahon, an authoritarian character that was a centerpiece of WWE programming for the last few decades.
WWE 2K24 Blurs Vince McMahon’s Face
WWE 2K24 has blurred footage of former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon during certain sections of its Showcase mode. Regardless, he appears in some parts of the game’s showcase mode, which allows players to play through iconic moments in WrestleMania history. The showcase includes real footage and in-game recreations of the events, with McMahon blurred in some portions.
The regular edition of WWE 2K24 will be released later this week. As for McMahon, the lawsuit against him will continue forward despite him quitting from the promotion. McMahon is seen with his face blurred in one particular archive footage used in-game where he’s there next to wrestler Charlotte Flair:
This is how they show Vince McMahon in WWE 2K24 😂#WWE2K24 pic.twitter.com/6Dvu5xYZun
— David Coulson | The Click (@ItzDoodles) March 6, 2024
However, McMahon hasn’t been blurred in the footage used for The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin’s WrestleMania 17 match.
WWE 2K24 coincides with the 40th anniversary of WrestleMania, and the showcase mode was added to celebrate the milestone. The 40 Years of WrestleMania edition of the game has a special cover featuring some of WWE’s most famous wrestlers.
What Was the Lawsuit Against Vince McMahon?
On January 25, 2024, Janel Grant, a former WWE employee, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court alleging trafficking, s*xual abuse, and assault following a meeting with him in 2019.
The lawsuit also claimed that McMahon had trafficked the former employee to other men “as a pawn to secure talent deals” with potential wrestlers the company was hiring (via Variety).
As per the lawsuit, when Vince McMahon’s wife got to know about the affairs, Grant was forced to sign an NDA and resign from the company. She was also promised a payment of $3 million from Mr. McMahon. However, McMahon did not pay her more than $1 million.
Meanwhile, as reported by Deadline, McMahon denied all the allegations, saying that those are “replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and is a vindictive distortion of the truth.”
The lawsuit was submitted two days after TKO signed a $500 million annual 10-year contract with Netflix for WWE’s Monday Night Raw.
