PHOTO OPS Archives

Surviving Vince McMahon: Ex-Employee Accuses WWE Founder of Sexual Assault & Trafficking In Federal Lawsuit

January 26, 2024

HipHopWired Featured Video

Source: Michelle Farsi / Getty / Vince McMahon
Vince McMahon is once again in trouble for being a very creepy individual.
*Trigger warning: this post will touch on alleged sexual assault*
A former WWE employee has slapped Vince McMahon and another former executive with a federal lawsuit accusing him of serious sexual misconduct accusations and offering her to a WWE superstar for sex.
Bruh.
Janel Grant, who worked in the WWE’s legal and talent departments, details in the 67-page lawsuit how McMahon, now 78, forced her into a sexual relationship with him to get employment within the company.
Per Vulture:
WWE employee Janel Grant is seeking to void the NDA she allegedly signed in exchange for reputational protection and a payout of $3 million. She alleges McMahon — whose net worth is $2.8 billion — stopped payments after she’d received only $1 million. The suit alleges that once news of McMahon’s NDA payments surfaced in June 2022, the WWE leaked Grant’s name to a media blogger — who is not named in the suit but has since been identified online as Brad Shepard — in what Grant and her legal team describe as “an overt intimidation tactic.”
She also says McMahon passed around pornographic images and videos of her having sex with other men to other individuals, WWE employees, and allegedly Brock Lesnar, according to The Wall Street Journal.
McMahon also offered Grant to Lesnar for a sexual relationship, and allegedly, the MMA athlete-turned-wrestler asked for a video of Grant urinating, Vulture reports.
The Lawsuit Details Alleged Cruelty & Degradation
The lawsuit also details the “extreme cruelty and degradation” Grant was allegedly subject to, accusing McMahon of defecating on her during a threesome, “commanding her to continue pleasuring his ‘friend’” while his waste was in her hair and running down her back.
McMahon is also accused of using sex toys he named after WWE superstars on Grant and making her engage in sexual acts with other WWE employees like head of talent relations John Laurinaitis, who is also named in the lawsuit.
There was also an incident detailed in the lawsuit where McMahon and Laurinaitis corned Grant in Laurinaitis’ locked office during a work day and took turns sexually assaulting her, ignoring her pleas for them to stop.
Why Did Grant Go Public?
Representatives for Grant said she wanted her filing to go public, and she came with the receipts in the form of disturbing text exchanges with McMahon.

McMahon told Grant their “relationship” was over in January 2022 after his wife, Linda McMahon, found out, and he even fired her from the company.
The lawsuit states that McMahon began pressuring Grant to sign an NDA and take a hush payment of $3 million. Allegedly, things didn’t stop after Grant agreed to sign the NDA, with McMahon attempting to offer her to a WWE superstar who was visiting New York in March 2022.
“Ms. Grant is filing this lawsuit not just to address her own suffering,” the suit reads. “But also to act for those who are afraid to speak out.”
We shall see if this opens the floodgates for more disturbing allegations.
Users on X, formerly Twitter, are laying the smackdown on Vince McMahon.

You can see more of those reactions in the gallery below.

1. Expeditiously

4. Shouldn’t have been using them in the first place

1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox Employees Laid Off By Microsoft, X Reacts

djfrosty

January 25, 2024

HipHopWired Featured Video

Source: Microsoft / Xbox /Activision Blizzard
New year, more layoffs in the video game industry, sadly.
Can we hit the reset button?
The video game industry continues to be hit with layoffs despite companies seeing massive amounts of profit and games selling like hotcakes.
Microsoft is the latest company to take an axe to its workforce, laying off 1,900 employees from Activision Blizzard and Xbox. The Verge reports that most of the layoffs will affect roles at Activision Blizzard, and these cuts will also impact some employees at Xbox and ZeniMax.
The 1,900 layoffs will account for 8% of Microsoft’s gaming division’s 22,000 employees.
The website obtained an internal memo from Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer confirming the horrible news.
Per The Verge:
It’s been a little over three months since the Activision, Blizzard, and King teams joined Microsoft. As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business. Together, we’ve set priorities, identified areas of overlap, and ensured that we’re all aligned on the best opportunities for growth.
As part of this process, we have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team. The Gaming Leadership Team and I are committed to navigating this process as thoughtfully as possible.
The people who are directly impacted by these reductions have all played an important part in the success of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and the Xbox teams, and they should be proud of everything they’ve accomplished here. We are grateful for all of the creativity, passion and dedication they have brought to our games, our players and our colleagues. We will provide our full support to those who are impacted during the transition, including severance benefits informed by local employment laws. Those whose roles will be impacted will be notified, and we ask that you please treat your departing colleagues with the respect and compassion that is consistent with our values.
Looking ahead, we’ll continue to invest in areas that will grow our business and support our strategy of bringing more games to more players around the world. Although this is a difficult moment for our team, I’m as confident as ever in your ability to create and nurture the games, stories and worlds that bring players together.
Phil
Blizzard president Mike Ybarra Is Also Bouncing
Among the 1,900 will also be Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, who did his best impression of the Spongebob “might imma head out” meme.
“As many of you know, Mike previously spent more than 20 years at Microsoft. Now that he has seen the acquisition through as Blizzard’s president, he has decided to leave the company,” Microsoft’s game content and studios president, Matt Booty, said in an internal memo.
Also leaving is Allen Adham, Blizzard’s chief design officer.
Booty adds, “As one of Blizzard’s cofounders, Allen has had a broad impact on all of Blizzard’s games. His influence will be felt for years to come, both directly and indirectly, as Allen plans to continue mentoring young designers across the industry.”

The Verge has also reported that a game Blizzard has been working on for over six years has also been canceled. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier says the name of the game was Odyssey.

Schreier notes that Activision Blizzard employees are reaching out to him to learn their fate and waiting to see if they are among the 1,900.

Social Media Reactions To The Layoffs
As expected, the news of the layoffs is not landing well on X, formerly Twitter, with reactions pouring in from those involved in the gaming industry.
Kinda Funny’s Andy Cortez perfectly summed up in one post on X how these layoffs can affect the future of the video game industry.
“You’re a student in game dev school. You’re reading about Microsoft laying off 1,900 people after buying Activision Blizzard. You just read about more Embracer layoffs from yesterday. Nearly 6,000 games industry workers are jobless so far this year. It is still January,” Cortez said.

The frightening trend, which saw an estimated 10,500 game industry workers in 2023, is currently on pace to match or smash that number. Video Games Chronicle reports over 5,000 workers will lose their jobs in 2024.
Damn.
You can see more reactions to Microsoft layoffs in the gallery below.

1. Unbelievable

2. Great point

7. Well damn

The Pokémon Company Is Putting On Its Detective Pikachu Hat & Investigating ‘Palword’

djfrosty

January 25, 2024

HipHopWired Featured Video

Source: CHRIS DELMAS / Getty / Palworld
The Pokémon Company has seen enough and is looking into the viral game Palworld.
2023 ended with a huge gaming scam with The Day Before. Could we be on the verge of seeing a popular video game being exposed for stealing early in 2024?
Since the arrival of Palworld and its meteoric rise, many have been keeping their eyes peeled and ears opened, wondering if The Pokémon Company would have anything to say about the obvious Pokémon-“inspired” survival game.
Thursday night, The Pokémon Company broke their silence on the matter. In a statement, the game studio says it will investigate Palworld and “take appropriate measures” if it finds anything that looks like the game infringes on its intellectual property.

Since launching in early access on Friday, Jan. 19, numerous claims of plagiarism have been lobbied at the game, specifically regarding the design of the Pals, the creatures players can capture, collect, and battle.
While the game is clearly a riff or parody on Pokémon, other gameplay designs like crafting, arming your characters, and Pals with guns, as well as base-building, put the game in the same breath as other survival titles like Valheim and Ark.
Still, that didn’t stop loyal fans of Pokémon from contacting The Pokémon Company. Like loss prevention at your favorite clothing store that allows thieves to steal so they can build a case, they are watching and seemingly letting Palworld do the same.
The statement reads in full:
We have received many inquiries regarding another company’s game released in January 2024. We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual property or assets in that game. We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon. We will continue to cherish and nurture each and every Pokémon and its world, and work to bring the world together through Pokémon in the future.
Nintendo has already shut down a Pokémon mod introduced into the PC version of the game, and the creator of the mod announced that the company notorious for coming after people for “abusing” its intellectual property did hit him up.

Speaking with Stephen Totilo of Game File, former head of The Pokémon Company’s legal team from 2008 to 2020, Don McGowan, shared his thoughts on Palworld, saying, “This looks like the usual ripoff nonsense that I would see a thousand times a year when I was Chief Legal Officer of Pokémon,” he said. “I’m just surprised it got this far.”
Palworld Is DOING NUMBERS
Despite all that, Palworld is doing insane numbers that titles like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 have done, but just in a matter of days.
On its official account, the game celebrated the milestone of selling over 8 million copies in less than six days, and that could be even more thanks to all the hoopla surrounding the game.
The game is also available on Xbox Game Pass, and we have no clue how many subscribers are playing it there, and that could also be in the millions.

We want to see how this plays out and if The Pokémon Company’s investigation exposes some bad faith acting on Palworld’s developer Pocketpair’s part.
Until then, the video game streets are talking. You can see those reactions below.

3. Howling

5. So unserious, lol

X Users React To Lame Article Explaining What The Swag Surf Is After Taylor Swift Butchered The Dance

djfrosty

January 24, 2024

HipHopWired Featured Video

Source: Jamie Squire / Getty
Did we lose another recipe? X users believe the Swag Surf has been gentrified after Taylor Swift and co’s flavorless attempt at the dance.
The world’s most famous Chiefs fan, Taylor Swift (insert sarcasm), has become a fixture of NFL Sunday conversations. Usually, most of the conversation is about cameras constantly cutting to Swift and her friends to see the ridiculously popular singer’s reactions to whatever her beau, Travis Kelce, does something on the field.
That continued to be the case during the Chiefs NFL Wild Card matchup with the Miami Dolphins this past weekend. Swift once again went viral for her custom Nike puffer jacket to battle the extreme cold and her flavorless attempt at doing the Swag surf.
A clip shared on the Sunday Night Football official account on X, formerly Twitter, showed the “Bad Blood” singer butchering the dance made famous by Fast Life Yungstaz for their song “Swag Surfin.”

The jokes were immediate, and so were the fears that melanin-deficient publications and websites would somehow credit Taylor Swift for the song’s popularity, and as expected, that happened.
Black Twitter, yes, we are still calling it that was up in arms after Sporting News dropped an article with the headline:
“What is Swag Surfin? Everything to know about Chiefs’ viral dance celebration as Taylor Swift, Donna Kelce participate.”

The article literally broke down the dance and eventually had to be updated with the dance originating in Atlanta.

Even Plies chimed in on the matter.
“I Luv Seeing Taylor Swift & The Kansas City Chiefs Rock Out To “Swag Surfing” On Sundays. But Media Let’s Stop Acting Like They Created It! Let’s Give Props To F.L.Y, Atlanta & The HBCU Community For Birthing The Phenomenon!!” the rapper said in a post on X.

Not one lie detected in Plies post.
We are sure Taylor Swift meant no harm, but boy, did they try it.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.

2. He definitely tried it

James Carville & Others Believe Donald Trump Has Syphilis After Photo of Red Rashes On His Right Hand Goes Viral

djfrosty

January 18, 2024

HipHopWired Featured Video

Source: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / Getty / Donald Trump
Disgraced former president Donald Trump, who is currently trying to weasel his insurrection leading behind back into the White House and always falsely claims to be a picture of good health. A recent flick has many wondering if the wannabe “healthy” dictator is burning with a venereal disease.A photo of Orange Mussolini, aka Donald Trump, leaving Trump Tower in New York City and waving to “supporters” went viral yesterday, not because folks love to see him but for the noticeably large red scabs or splotches on his fingers on his right hand.
After The Daily Mail noticed the marks and The Drudge Report picked up the story, Bill Clinton’s former advisor, legendary Democratic strategist, and slayer of Republicans, James Carville, had his own opinion.
In a YouTube video, Carville said he believed the “hand cuts” were signs the twice-impeached president could be suffering from syphilis.
“They don’t look like cuts to me,” Carville explained. “They look like sores. And I’ve asked a number of M.D.s what medical condition manifests itself through hand sores, and the answer is immediate and unanimous.”
“Secondary syphilis,” he continued. “I think there’s a good chance this man has the clap.”

Carville, who never misses an opportunity to drag Trump or any of his supporters, did admit he didn’t know anything about the photo, saying it’s “probably a Fleet Street rag” and noting it could have been doctored.
Trump has yet to comment on people thinking he is burning on his X, formerly Twitter knockoff for far-right clowns, Truth Social, but he did repost a video of himself claiming, “I actually feel better now than I did 30 years ago!”
Yeah, sure.
Other Opinions On Trump’s “Red Rashes”
Again, we are not definitively saying Trump has syphilis; one doctor gave his opinion on what could be behind the known germaphobe’s red rashes on his hand.
Per The Palm Beach Post:
“Rashes on the hands can be caused by a variety of factors, ranging from infections to inflammatory conditions to external exposures,” Zeichner said.
The professor suggested the marks could have come from dryness and overwashing. Trump, an avowed germaphobe, has just spent several days in Arctic conditions traveling around Iowa and speaking in public for the presidential caucuses.
Zeichner also says the rashes could have come from Trump’s penchant for golfing.
Anyway, that didn’t stop the jokes from coming in and #SyphilisDon from trending on Elon Musk’s crappy platform.
You can see those reactions in the gallery below.

3. We are sure Trump wasn’t happy about this.

Latest Trailer For ‘Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth’ Teases Epic Showdown With Sephiroth & Other Major Story Changes

djfrosty

January 16, 2024

HipHopWired Featured Video

Source: Square Enix / Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
We already knew Final Fantasy VII Remake was not just a rehash of the original game with a fresh coat of next-gen paint but a complete reimagining of what many consider the greatest RPG ever made. When Rebirth arrives, you can expect the same and then some.
A new trailer for Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is here to excite us for a game we already can’t wait to play. The two-disc JRPG is upon us, and it will remix the beats from the original game that were engrained in our brains and, at the same, add some new twists to the story.
The usual suspects like Cloud Strife, Aerith, Cid, Red XIII, Barrett, Tifa, Cait Sith, plus Yuffie and Vincent are all back and are teaming up to save the world from Sephiroth.
In the original game, Yuffie and Vincent were optional characters, but in Rebirth, they will be a part of the primary team. The new trailer teases the big showdown with the legendary soldier turned wannabe destroyer of humanity.
It also teases possible changes to the original, like possibly confirming that Zack survived the epic battle and his being essential to Rebirth’s story.
Will There Be A Major Death In Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth?
Also, Aerith could be alive this time (spoiler alert); she died in the US version of the original game, much to players’ chagrin.
But, we still could be getting a significant death, and many believe it will be fan favorite Tifa who bites the dust this time around because of particular clips possibly showing her dying.
[embedded content]
Again, we don’t know if this is the case, but we know producer Yoshinori Kitase is not afraid to have us clutch our pearls and be in our feels while playing his games.
By heading here, you can peep our interview with Kitase ahead of Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Hit the gallery below for more screenshots from Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, which arrives exclusively on PlayStation 5 on Feb. 26.

1. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth