Former WWE writers are speaking up about the occasionally toxic culture of WWE under Vince McMahon. Women who worked in the writer's room are also speaking out about their experiences of feeling discomfort while working for the company.
Krystie Lee Yandoli of The Rolling Stone recently published a story interviewing multiple former WWE writers, many of whom chose to remain anonymous, about their experience working with WWE. One such writer said that, as a woman, she did not feel comfortable working for the company.
Specifically, she says that she did not like the way that other male writers sexualized female talents. She also claimed they would make fun of the wrestlers if they weren't over-sexualizing them.
“On the one hand, this is the product in the story,” the writer acknowledges, “but on the other hand, I feel like we’re not talking about the story anymore. The undertones are dangerous, and what they wanted in their environment scared me.”
Furthermore, she said that this behavior made her feel like "an object."
“I felt like there’s no way I could be in this boys club,” she says.
Another former writer stated that she felt those around her would comment on her outfits and touch her in unnecessary ways. While she does state that the behaviors weren't explicitly sexual, she felt it was a means of controlling her in ways that did not happen to the men in the writing room.
“They would touch me where they would have me come closer [to them],” she claims. “They would pull me by my waist to come somewhere or move closer to them. I’m just super aware that it’s kind of close to my butt and most people don’t touch me by the waist ever. I thought, ‘This is strange.’”
Several women writers spoke out about feeling uncomfortable while working at WWE. Two writers say they took their complaints to HR, which led to a Zoom meeting in 2020 where affected women writers were allowed to air their grievances. One writer says they were emotional as they felt unsafe in the workplace. Another who had attended the meeting claims they felt WWE didn't take any of it seriously and that it was done to appease those affected.
One former writer says that a male senior staffer told them, "'Come to me if you have a problem.' Which is such bullshit, because he’s part of the problem, too. He enabled Vince with everything that he did.”
When discussing Vince McMahon's pension for changing television show formats on the day of, one anonymous writer said it began to feel like they were all just there to satisfy the whims of one man.
“It doesn’t really matter what he said in that creative room or if he loved it [at an earlier point], it was still going to get torn up before the show,” one former writer says. “By the time Monday rolled around and we were all in the production meeting, something else was gonna happen. It almost felt like a joke, like we were just there to satisfy Vince’s whims. We were all Vince McMahon transcribers.” The writer said. “I think Vince enjoyed the manipulation. He liked changing things. He liked keeping people on their toes. I genuinely felt like, this isn’t to benefit the show or the storyline, Vince really just enjoys making people squirm.”
In response to this, a McMahon spokesperson said this practice was common in positions related to sports and entertainment as it is not a nine-to-five position.
“Like many jobs in the sports and entertainment industries, the writer’s position was not a 9-to-5 gig. If new ideas needed to be implemented or changes made to the script, meetings could be held late into the evening because of Vince’s availability given his travel schedule and his multiple duties at the company as CEO, as well as overseeing all of the creative content for hundreds of live events and broadcasts every year.”
There are also more discussions of the toxic boys club vibe, including one former writer claiming they heard a higher-up tell another writer, "Something to the extent of, ‘I wish your dad pulled out and came on your mom’s tits instead of having you.’
“This was, like, good old boys locker-room talk,” the former writer says. "The more someone was promoted and the closer they got to “that innermost circle. The more volatile it got, and the more you dealt with some of these ‘good old boys.’”
Michael Leonardi, the former writer who chose not to remain anonymous, says that while the toxicity was there, the environment was much more uplifting when McMahon wasn't around.
“When Vince wasn’t there, it was amazing to see how things opened up,” he says, describing the mood as “jovial” on occasion. “People start talking, the creativity [flows]. It’s just so clear how much his influence and the way he ran things would actually stifle the process.”
Leonardi also says he's heard the environment has improved since Triple H took over creative and called him "a great leader."
The article also features a reflection from Leonardi on the incident that cost him his job at WWE: a segment on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2016 where Neville (AEW's PAC) was scripted to tell Mark Henry, R-Truth, and Titus O'Neil that he also 'had a dream' to win the Royal Rumble. Learn more about his firing at this link.
A spokesperson for McMahon issued a statement to Rolling Stone responding specifically to this story, claiming that Neville had never written to say such a thing. This spokesperson acknowledged that McMahon was extremely hands-on with WWE scripts, saying, “That’s why the idea of him suggesting or approving the use of a famous Martin Luther King, Jr. quote for a punchline to be used by a white British character is so ridiculous. It simply didn’t happen.”
Furthermore, the spokesperson for McMahon issued an overall statement on all of the writers' claims in the story, saying that there were plenty of writers who could share positive experiences about working for WWE and shocking the article up to a "handful" of disgruntled individuals:
“Scores of writers could share tales of what an enjoyable, creative, and freewheeling environment the WWE writers rooms were. This handful of (obviously disgruntled) individuals aren’t representative in any way of the consensus—or of the truth.”
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
