Vince McMahon is facing fresh allegations surrounding his behaviour while in charge of WWE.
In January, McMahon resigned from his position as Executive Chairman of TKO – the company following WWE and UFC’s merger – after being accused of sex trafficking.
While the 78-year-old continues to deny the allegations, he has stepped back from his involvement with the company, with a number of current WWE wrestlers speaking out in shock of the alleged events.
A new statement has reportedly come to light, however, surrounding former WWE star Ashley Massaro, who died in 2019 by suicide eight months after the dismissal of a lawsuit where she claimed head injuries from her wrestling career made her spiral into depression.
According to Vice, a previously unpublished statement given before her death has come to light describing some more alleged behaviour from McMahon that related to Massaro.
Vince McMahon is reportedly facing fresh allegations on the back of being accused of sex trafficking
Ashley Massaro, who committed suicide in 2019, accused McMahon of punishing her after she rejected his sexual advances
In 2016, Massaro alleged that members of the US Armed Forces drugged and sexually assaulted her during a WWE tour of Kuwait in 2006.
She also accused McMahon of abuse and claimed WWE discouraged her from reporting the alleged sexual assault.
WWE had issued a statement after Massaro’s suicide claiming that they were never made aware of the former wrestler’s allegations.
‘At no time was Vince McMahon or the management of WWE ever informed by Ashley Massaro or anybody else that she had been sexually assaulted, drugged, raped or sodomized by a military doctor with a nurse standing guard while on a goodwill tour in 2007 to U.S. military bases in Kuwait,’ the statement read.
‘In fact, if she ever articulated such a claim to WWE, we would have reported it immediately to the Base Commander.
‘At no time was there ever a meeting with Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn, John Laurinaitis or other company executives in which she told them of such a claim and was instructed to keep it quiet.’
In the new statement, Massaro alleges that McMahon sexually preyed on female wrestlers and that she personally was punished on-screen for rejecting his advances.
It is alleged that Massaro was given bad scripts to destroy her reputation, which was common behaviour from McMahon that he became known for.
Massaro had alleged that members of the US Armed Forces drugged and sexually assaulted her during a WWE tour of Kuwait in 2006
John Laurinaitis – named as a defendant in the lawsuit – was aware of the allegations alongside McMahon and other WWE executives, according to his lawyer
Former WWE executive John Laurinaitis, meanwhile, was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
His lawyer has claimed that McMahon and other WWE executives, including Laurinaitis, knew about Massaro’s allegations.