Vince McMahon Accused Of Preying On Female WWE Talents

T.W. This news piece contains details of sexual assault and other forms of abuse 

Over the last week, unsavoury details surrounding the late Ashley Massaro have emerged regarding her time in WWE. Following on from the revelation from John Laurinaitis’ camp that WWE did in fact know about rape allegations made by Massaro following an overseas trip to a Kuwait military base, more details have emerged when it comes to the alleged abuse Massaro went through during her time with WWE.

In a previously unreleased statement made to her lawyers, Massaro claimed that she had seen Vince McMahon not only “preying” on female workers, but also “making out” with them too. Additionally, after denying his advances, Massaro claimed to have been punished for this with her on-screen character receiving demeaning scripts.

The statement, which was not deemed relevant to Massaro’s specific case back in 2017, was released by VICE in full, aside from redacting the name of a female wrestler mentioned by Massaro.

“During my time with the WWE, I had observed Vince McMahon making-out with other divas in the locker room, but he never paid attention to me, and I assumed I was not his type. This changed after my Playboy cover was released. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to fly on the company jet and stay at the same hotels as the executives for a period of time so that I could get home faster to spend more time with my daughter. On one of these occasions, Vince was attempting to get me alone with him in his hotel room late at night and I felt extraordinarily uncomfortable. He began calling the hotel room phone and my cell phone nonstop. I called Kevin Dunn to explain the situation and he said I should tell Vince I was not feeling well and would see him on TV the next day, so I did. Immediately after that night, Vince started writing my promos for me. Vince does not write promos for female wrestlers—that is the job of the creative department—and he certainly wouldn’t have, under any normal circumstances, written a promo for me. But he did, and the promos were written with the clear intention of ruining my career. I brought the first script Vince wrote for me to the WWE employee in charge of Creative at the time, Michael Hayes, and he said, ‘you’re not saying this, who the [expletive] wrote this?’ and I told him that Vince did. He said, ‘Well kid, these are the breaks,’ meaning that Vince wanted to end my career and destroy my reputation on my way out. He is known for this type of behavior and also did this to [REDACTED] upon her departure from WWE. In addition, after that night, each time I walk by him he would make vulgar sexual comments that were clearly designed to make me uncomfortable.”

In 2019, Massaro tragically lost her life due to suicide, and in the aftermath of this WWE claimed that they were not aware of the allegations made by Massaro at the time. This claim has now been revealed as false by John Laurinaitis’ lawyer.