Rita Chatterton talks about her first experience as a WWE referee, and a story she was told about Pat Patterson trying to convince the wrestlers in the first WWE match she refereed to injure her.
Rita Chatterton was the first-ever female WWE referee. She was briefly associated with the company during the Rock-N-Wrestling era of the 1980s. She would exit from the company, following allegations that Vince McMahon sexually assaulted her in 1986.
Now, speaking on the Cheap Heat Productions podcast, Rita is speaking about her first booking as a WWE referee and how Pat Patterson attempted to stop her from refereeing before she threatened legal action.
"Pat Patterson, Jay Strongbow, and Richard Herring come walking over to me, and Pat Patterson's got a fistful of money, and he says, ‘Here, take this.’ I looked at him, ‘I said, ‘What's that?’ He says, ‘You're getting paid for tonight, but you're not refereeing anything.’ I looked at him and said, ‘Yes, I am. Look, if I don't referee tonight, I will sue you personally, and I will sue you, and I will sue you,’ and I pointed to the other two. I said, ‘and then I will sue the WWF. Because I'm a good referee, I've worked hard for it, and yes, I am working.’
“They storm away,” she continued. “Rich Herring looks at me and smiles because he knows me. He just assigned me. So I ended up doing — my very first match was a women's tag team match. I found out a few months later that Pat Patterson told the women to break my legs and make sure I never wanted to get in the ring again. Luckily, being women, instead of doing anything to hurt me, they helped me, and that's how I got started. But, it was crazy. It was a crazy world. Things were so much different back then. But luckily, the women knew that you had to work 10 times as hard for a quarter of the recognition that the men got at the time. So instead of doing anything that hurt me, they actually helped me. So it was my first experience.”
Despite her experiences with Vince McMahon, whom she alleges sexually assaulted her in 1986, Chatterton says she doesn't hate the world of wrestling and would be open to participating within the world of wrestling depending on the scenario.
In fact, she even says that there is a 13-year-old young woman named Gemma that she is helping train.
“I would consider it. It would depend on what it was. I never completely closed the door, I would never go back to work for Vince McMahon. But that doesn't mean I hate wrestling. That doesn't mean I'm down on wrestling. In fact, I have a little girl right now that I'm training, I'm helping to train. Here's another quick story for you. My daughter has a daycare and she used to babysit this little girl and her family is big time into wrestling. Last year, she went to school and they gave her an assignment to write an essay on what they wanted to be when they got older and to do the research on it. Well, her essay was done on, she wants to be a wrestling diva and she did the research. She checked into it. She took her essay to school and a teacher read it and said, ‘I'm sorry, this isn't a real job and I won't accept it.’
“She's only 13. So she can't do any wrestling just yet, but she's being a valet and walking the guys to the ring, doing a little bit of commentary and by the time she's 18 she's gonna be so ready for this business.”
Rita Chatterton’s story was recently featured in New York Magazine. You can learn more about her story and her telling of her experiences with Vince McMahon at this link.
Should you use any portion of the quotes above, transcription credit should go to Fightful with a H/T linking back to this article.
