TRIGGER WARNING
After Ashley Massaro died in May 2019, an affidavit was made public where she alleged WWE covered up that she was sexually assaulted while on a military base in 2007.
Tim Marchman of VICE News has uncovered a previously unpublished statement that was initially included as a section in the finalized affidavit but members of Massaro’s legal team ultimately decided to leave it out because it wasn’t clearly relevant given that the lawsuit was about concussions.
Erica Mirabella, who represented Massaro, said, “Our colleagues ultimately decided we should focus only on the sexual assault and physical in-ring injuries Ashley sustained, 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.”
The statement reads as follows:
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.
Konstantine Kyros, who represented Ashley Massaro and other former wrestlers in a concussion lawsuit against WWE, spoke about the allegations and WWE's toxic culture. In his comments, he said, "I believe the allegations were Mr. McMahon himself was commonly seen kissing the Divas in the rooms and so forth. When she rejected his advances, she met the fate of many other wrestlers, which was that her career was going to come to an end, and that's essentially what happened."
You can find his full comments by clicking here.
The lawyer for John Laurinaitis objected to the use of the term “cover-up" in regards Massaro's previous allegations, but confirmed that Laurinaitis knew about the allegations and said “most upper level management” was aware. You can find the full comments by clicking here.
Victim Resources:
National Sexual Assault Hotline
Hours: Available 24 hours
1-800-656-4673
