Ashley Massaro Accused Vince McMahon Of Preying On Female WWE Wrestlers
The WWE star accused McMahon of sexually preying on female wrestlers before her passing.
Content warning; discussion of alleged sexual assault
The late Ashley Massaro gave a statement accusing Vince McMahon of sexually preying on herself and other female WWE stars before her death.
Vice News have published the previously unreleased statement, with Massaro's lawyers Konstantine Kyros and Erica Mirabella collecting it in 2017. The statement was part of a sworn affidavit in their lawsuit against World Wrestling Entertainment for the handling of concussions.
Within this affidavit, Massaro alleged that she'd been drugged and raped by somebody who claimed to be a US Army doctor back when WWE were in the middle of a public relations tour of Kuwait military bases in 2006. McMahon would also tell Massaro, as it was stated in the affidavit, "not to let one bad experience ruin the good work they were doing".
The claim from Massaro that McMahon preyed on female talent was left out of that sworn affidavit. Her attorneys were said to have "ultimately left it out because it wasn’t relevant to central claims in the lawsuit in which they were representing her, which concerned concussions."
The previous unreleased statement alleges that McMahon wrote promos "with the clear intention of ruining (her) career" in the wake of Massaro rejecting McMahon's advances, with McMahon trying to get her in his hotel room on her own late at night.
Her full statement, as published by Vice News, can be read below:
"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."
Earlier this week it was noted that, despite claiming they weren't aware of the 2006 sexual assault allegations made by Massaro, WWE "upper level management" were actually aware of these allegations.
The former WWE star sadly died of suicide in 2019 at just 39-years-old.