As accusations in opposition to Vince McMahon and the WWE proceed to pile up, VICE NEWS has obtained a beforehand unpublished assertion by former wrestler Ashley Massaro given earlier than her loss of life that claims McMahon preyed on feminine wrestlers and ended Massaro’s profession as a result of she rejected his sexual advances.
Legal professionals collected the assertion as a part of a 2018 lawsuit filed by Konstantine Kyros and Erica Mirabella, legal professionals who represented Massaro and dozens of different WWE wrestlers trying to search damages associated to traumatic mind accidents sustained from wrestling. The legal professionals collected statements from wrestlers throughout the WWE about their expertise with the group.
Massaro’s assertion was ultimately reduce from the ultimate affidavit as a result of it was not clearly related to the lawsuit principally targeted on concussions.
“Our colleagues ultimately decided we should focus only on the sexual assault and physical in-ring injuries Ashley sustained,” Mirabella mentioned to VICE, “so I discussed this with Ashley and she agreed that we could remove it, so it was deleted. We then finalized the affidavit, she signed it, and we submitted it to the court.”
Mirabella additionally famous that Massaro was “extremely detailed, thoughtful, and thorough throughout the entire process,” in keeping with VICE Information. Massaro died in 2019 of an obvious suicide.
The assertion from Massaro particulars McMahon “making out” with different feminine wrestlers within the locker room, harassing Massaro with repeated cellphone calls late at evening, and ultimately tanking her profession with unfavourable promos after she rejected his sexual advances.
“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,” Massaro mentioned in her assertion. “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.”
After this second, in keeping with Massaro, McMahon took over writing her promos – one thing he doesn’t do for feminine wrestlers. In Massaro’s eyes, the promos have been particularly written “with the clear intention of ruining [her] career.”
“I brought the first script Vince wrote for me to the WWE employee in charge of Creative at the time, Michael Hayes,” Massaro’s assertion learn, “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.”
McMahon was also accused of masking up Massaro’s alleged rape at a Kuwait army base in a civil intercourse trafficking lawsuit. These allegations initially got here out in June 2019 however the investigation was closed in January 2020. In Massaro’s affidavit, longtime WWE manufacturing chief Kevin Dunn allegedly informed Massaro “not to let one bad experience ruin the work they were doing,” referring to her talking out about her sexual assault. Dunn was unable to be reached for remark, and a lawyer mentioned to characterize McMahon didn’t reply to a request for remark.
