10 Biggest Wrestling Stories Of 2019 (So Far)
4. The Death Of Ashley Massaro, And Its Grim Fallout
On May 16, WWE Diva Search winner Ashley Massaro died by suicide.
Massaro had struggled with depression for years, an illness for which she blamed, through a class action lawsuit, WWE's alleged medical negligence and intense pressure culture. Massaro claimed in a 2017 affidavit that "Aside from my on-going physical injuries that were sustained in the ring, and my former battle with addiction, to this day I suffer from depression, for which I take medication; migraine headaches; and severe short-term memory loss."
She alleged something significantly more evil haunted her throughout her post-WWE life: the grim memory of the alleged, covered-up rape she endured on a tour of Kuwait in 2006. The secret history of WWE, as curated by several former talents, is that of a toxic, ugly organisation. Without conflating the tragedies, the man who has taken it upon himself to clean it up is so inept in execution that the legal system will not take him seriously.
Was Massaro failed, to a harrowing extent?
We'll never know, such is the perpetual motion of the 24-hour news cycle. This story, like all of the other stories, has not lingered. But her legacy has: in a genuinely noble gesture, several of Massaro's former colleagues and Mick Foley assumed responsibility for her family's aftercare by surpassing the $100,000 goal set on the GoFundMe initiative.
What Ashley Massaro won at in life isn't perhaps widely respected - but she was a winner, a grafter, a human being, and she deserves, at a minimum, respect in death.