In 1992, Mel Phillips and Terry Garvin were accused to have inappropriate sexual relations with underage boys by Tom Cole, a former ring boy. Cole also accused Pat Patterson of making sexual gestures. Cole reached an out of court settlement with WWE.
In the "Mr. McMahon" documentary on Netflix, the Ring Boy scandal is covered, with Bret Hart weighing in.
"Mel Phillips was a total pedophile that preyed on young boys and if these young boys weren't complying with their request for sexual favors, they weren't hired," said Bret.
Journalist Phil Mushnick covered the scandal, and Vince McMahon believed that Phil had it out for WWE.
"Phil Mushnick was trying to build this whole case of how rotten the company was. He didn't care how he did it. He didn't care whether he hurt the people involved on one side of the the other. He just wanted to write this salacious piece about WWE," said Vince.
Mushnick stated, "It was a pedophile ring! Three of these guys were all in on it. These were real kids being sexually abused on McMahon's watch."
Bret said, "I do think there was a lot of turning a blind eye to some of the things that were going on, but I don't think anybody could ever prove anything. It was like, 'How do you prove it?'"
Phillips, Garvin, and Patterson were all fired. Phillips was later re-hired with the mandate to stay away from kids. Patterson was also re-hired with McMahon believing he was innocent.
The Ring Boy Scandal was heavily covered by David Bixenspan for Business Insider and Abraham Josephine Riseman for Rolling Stone.
In February, another former Ring Boy came forward. You can find their comments by clicking here.
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Janel Grant, a former WWE employee, filed a lawsuit in January against Vince McMahon, WWE, and John Laurinaitis. The lawsuit accuses McMahon of sexual assault and sex trafficking. On May 30, Grant agreed to pause the lawsuit for six months while the federal investigation continued against McMahon, who resigned from TKO/WWE following the lawsuit.
Victim Resources:
National Sexual Assault Hotline
Hours: Available 24 hours
1-800-656-4673
