The new Vince McMahon claims that were published in the Wall Street Journal on Friday were discussed by Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzales. One of the accusers, who received a sizable $7.5 million payment after reportedly being forced to give McMahon oral sex, was a former star, as PWMania.com previously reported. According to Dave Meltzer, he recently spoke with writers who worked for the company in the middle of the 2000s, and several of them expressed doubt about particular talent being pushed quickly after joining the company.
Meltzer said, “I talked to some writers from that era, one in particular, for a long time today. And they would say that sometimes [Vince] came in and it was like ‘you gotta start pushing this woman. And it’s not told to them that Vince is sleeping with them or anything but when you get this directive that you have to push this woman who clearly wasn’t ready in the ring, wasn’t ready talking wise, wasn’t over and you start asking questions. Most of those questions would later lead to those same answers. This has not been anything new.”
Regarding the allegations by the paralegal, Meltzer said, “People in the company certainly knew of who she was and that story when it was going on because they saw her rise to the top…In her case, she never applied for a job there. She met Vince at Vince’s place of residence which is the Trump Hotel, his penthouse in Connecticut…and where she apparently lives as well and [Vince] offered her a job and was gonna increase her salary from $100,000 to $300,000 and I guess bells would of went off with that kind of a raise so it was only $100,000 to $200,000 which still some bells went off. She’s also alleged to have been moved out of one department to the assistant of John Laurinaitis and I guess the allegation is that John Laurinaitis had an affair with her and she was paid $3 million to keep quiet. That was all very recently. Most of these other cases are in the mid-2000s, the Divas search era.”
On the wrestler who was demoted in 2005 and later received the $7.5 million payout, Meltzer said, “I’ve been told two names. I’m not gonna be talking about names because it’s not really fair to the women…there’s a very familiar ring to the story. I know one writer who told me one name…it is that Diva Search era people that a lot of them came and went very quickly. They were brought to the main roster because they looked good in bikinis and then they were gone. It’s a really ugly situation when you think about it.”
Meltzer said that the allegations that McMahon forced oral sex on the former wrestler matched a pattern because Rita Chatterton was allegedly subjected to the same treatment by McMahon in 1986. The WSJ’s other allegation that McMahon sent unwanted nude images is consistent with the account of the alleged sexual assault at the Boca Raton, Florida, tanning clinic.
The most recent Wall Street Journal report has not received any public comments from McMahon or his lawyer Jerry McDevitt.
As PWMania.com previously reported, it was disclosed on Wednesday, June 15 that Vince was the subject of an inquiry by the WWE Board of Directors regarding the “secret $3 million settlement” he had given to the former paralegal employed in 2019. The involvement of Laurinaitis is also under investigation, and the Board is also looking into other incidents involving former female employees. Then, on Friday, June 17, it was revealed that Stephanie had come back from her leave of absence to serve as the interim CEO and chairwoman after Vince willingly stood down from his chairman and CEO business obligations while continuing to carry out his creative tasks. Then, on Monday, June 20, it was made public that Bruce Prichard, Senior Vice President of WWE and Executive Producer of RAW/SmackDown, is also serving as Interim Senior Vice President of Talent Relations, standing in for Laurinaitis throughout the inquiry. Then, today, Friday, July 8, it was made public that McMahon had agreed to pay four women, among them a former wrestler, more than $12 million in “hush money.”
Stay tuned to PWMania.com for more.
