Janel Grant’s sex trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon and WWE will likely soon move out of the public eye.
The former WWE employee, the former WWE Chairman, and WWE filed a joint motion on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, requesting to continue their litigation in private arbitration.
The defendants, McMahon and WWE, had long pushed to move the case into arbitration, citing the arbitration clause in the nondisclosure agreement Grant signed with McMahon in 2022.
Judge Sarah F. Russell has not ruled on the motion, but courts rarely reject motions that all parties jointly request.
The one-paragraph filing states that the parties are “in active discussions regarding a potential agreement to arbitrate the dispute in confidential arbitration,” which would render the defendants’ motion to compel arbitration moot.
The filing does not explain a reason for Grant’s change in position regarding her willingness to take her dispute into a private forum. An attorney for Grant did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Representatives for McMahon declined to comment. An inquiry to WWE’s press representatives was not immediately responded to.
We will update this story if any of the parties provide a statement.
The parties had been scheduled to attend a hearing on June 16 to argue that issue, as well as whether Grant would be allowed to obtain evidence from the defendants in support of her litigation of the arbitration question. The filing asks for that hearing to be at least postponed, or “temporarily adjourned,” with an update due in three weeks.
Arbitration is a private process where legal disputes are resolved without a public court. The defendants had been pushing for years to move the case into that forum, citing a clause in the $3 million nondisclosure agreement that directs any disputes to be handled in arbitration. Until now, Grant had argued that the arbitration provision shouldn’t be enforced and that she was coerced into signing the NDA under duress.
The full text of the motion reads:
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the parties respectfully submit this joint motion for a short adjournment of the upcoming hearing on Defendants’ Motions to Compel Arbitration and Plaintiff’s Renewed Motion for Leave to Serve Motion-Related Discovery, which is currently scheduled for June 16, 2026. The parties are in active discussions regarding a potential agreement to arbitrate the dispute in confidential arbitration that would moot those motions. They seek this relief in good faith, to avoid unnecessarily consuming the Court’s and the parties’ resources—and so they can focus on progressing the potential arbitration agreement. The Parties respectfully propose that the Court temporarily adjourn the hearing and allow them to file a Joint Status Report within 21 days.
Grant’s lawsuit included graphic allegations of sex trafficking and sexual abuse and was initially filed in January 2024. The suit was quickly followed by McMahon’s resignation from all roles with WWE and TKO. McMahon denies the allegations that he sexually abused or trafficked the plaintiff.
Former WWE executive John Laurinaitis was also a defendant until he was dropped from the case following an agreement to provide Grant with evidence related to the case in May 2025. Laurinaitis is also alleged to have sexually assaulted Grant. He denies those allegations.
WWE is alleged to have been negligent in allowing abuse against Grant to occur.
The lawsuit put Grant’s name on the public record for the first time, and followed a 2022 scandal involving alleged misconduct against her and subsequent NDA payments. Internal and government investigations followed. In the midst of that news, McMahon resigned for the first time in July 2022, until his return to the company six months later.
