Ex-WWE Referee Rita Chatterton Reveals She Was Under AEW Contract For A Year (AEW News)

Former WWE referee Rita Chatterton has revealed she was under AEW contract for a year, calling Tony Khan a "very nice man" from her interactions with the All Elite Wrestling founder and CEO.

Chatterton, who came forward in 1992 with rape allegations against Vince McMahon, retired from wrestling in 1993 but entered AEW's orbit when Khan attempted to contact her before the deal came together. She recalled the experience on the Power & Glory podcast (h/t POST Wrestling):

"So finally, I said, ‘Okay guys. I’ll do this one show for you guys. This one event for you guys and then I’m done. Don’t ask me again. I’ll do the first one, I’ll help you out, I’ll do whatever I can for you but leave me alone. I don’t want this. It’s over.’ You know what? My dreams ended a long time ago. I once dreamt of being in the WWF Hall of Fame. That never happened. Okay. I’m in this (International Pro Wrestling) Hall of Fame now but anyway, I turn around and I do this event for him (Seth Turner), I get the Trailblazer award and then, you know, it’s kind of like riding a Harley because it’s in your blood and it started creeping back into my blood and I’m like, ehh. So, a few weeks after that, Seth calls me and says, ‘Rita, there’s this guy — he’s trying to get a hold of you. He wants your phone number,’ and I said, ‘Really? Who’s that?’ He says, ‘Well, his name is Tony Khan.’ ‘Who the hell is Tony Khan? That doesn’t even sound right.’ He says, ‘No, Rita.’ He says, ‘You should probably take his call’ and I said, ‘Why do I wanna take his call?’ He says, ‘Well, he owns the Jacksonville Jaguars.’ ‘Well, why the hell would anyone who owns the Jacksonville Jaguars want my phone number?’ He says, ‘Well, he also owns AEW Wrestling.’"

Continuing, Chatterton stated that Khan called her within a few weeks of her number being passed on to the AEW owner. She had a "nice long talk" with Khan, whom she called a "gentleman":

"I said, ‘Give him my phone number.’ So he gives him my number and I don’t hear anything and a couple of weeks later, I get this phone call and I look and I don’t know the number. Then I’m thinking about, I said, ‘Let me call that number back.’ So I call it back, it’s Tony Khan. So Tony Khan and I had a nice, long talk and I was under contract with him for a year. Very nice man. Gentleman. Very, very nice man, and that’s how I ended up getting back involved in wrestling. So, it was just a crazy story."

In her own words, Chatterton was used for "absolutely nothing" while contracted to AEW:

"You know what? I was under contract with him for a year and I did absolutely nothing. I did absolutely nothing (she laughed), and he wanted me under contract so I was under contract with him…"

Former WWE enhancement talent Mario Mancini appeared on the podcast alongside Rita. He stated that Chatterton's AEW contract was as a talent scout, adding that he'd send her potential wrestlers for AEW to use:

"It says talent scout and I’m like, ‘Alright, Rita, I’m gonna throw as many people at you as I can.’ I said, ‘I’m just gonna throw as many people at you as I can,’ and every now and then I’d go, ‘What are you doing?’ And she’s like, ‘I’m just kind of sitting home."

Chatterton did say, however, that she went to a couple of Jacksonville Jaguars football games, including one in the 2024/25 season.

Rita Chatterton Accused Vince McMahon Of Rape In 1992

Rita Chatterton became a regular WWE fixture in the mid-1980s, when she broke ground as the first female referee to ever work for the Vince McMahon-helmed promotion. In 1986, a company attorney claimed Chatterton had been "fired for cause", though this has been disputed, with another source claiming she resigned.

Chatterton remained a licensed referee under the New York State Athletic Commission afterwards. This saw her sent to several smaller-scale WWE shows, though she turned down events she knew McMahon would be attending. By 1993, she decided to retire from wrestling following the death of her friend Andre the Giant.

One year prior, Chatterton went public with her allegations against McMahon. Appearing on the TV show Now It Can Be Told in 1992, Chatterton claimed that Vince raped her in his limousine in July 1986. The statute of limitations had expired by the time Rita made the accusations, making prosecution impossible.

Chatterton's name was back in the media in 2022, when McMahon was accused of using WWE funds to make hush money payments to other sexual misconduct victims. That November, Chatterton filed a civil lawsuit seeking millions in damages against McMahon, which was settled for an undisclosed amount in 2023.