The following article is about allegations Ashley Massaro made against Vince McMahon and WWE. It contains subject matter about sexual assault and may not be appropriate for all audiences.
Prior to taking her own life in 2019, former WWE talent Ashley Massaro was one of many talents involved in a concussion lawsuit against WWE helmed by attorneys Konstantine Kyros and Erica Mirabella. As part of the suit, which was later dismissed in 2018, Massaro spoke to Mirabella extensively about her time in WWE to be summarised as an affidavit.
Their conversations covered well beyond the extent of what the suit covered and now, a previously unreleased statement from those discussions has come to light featuring new allegations against Vince McMahon. As reported by VICE News, Massaro alleged to have witnessed McMahon preying on female WWE talent in the locker room but ignored her until she featured on the cover of Playboy Magazine.
“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.”
Massaro went on to recall a particularly scary incident when McMahon allegedly attempted to get her alone with him in his hotel room at night, even going as far as to continually call both her hotel room phone and personal mobile phone. Eventually, she had to get advice from Kevin Dunn on how to deal with the situation.
“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.”
As a direct result of rejecting his alleged advances, Massaro claimed that McMahon personally began writing her promo material. She alleged this was with the intent of ruining her character and, in turn, torpedoing her career, something which McMahon was known for and had already done to another talent whose identity was withheld.
“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.”