A WWE star claimed that Vince McMahon preyed on female wrestlers and destroyed her career after turning down his advances in an affidavit shortly before killing herself, according to bombshell report.
Ashley Massaro, who accused the disgraced wrestling mogul and other WWE executives of covering up her alleged rape on an army base in Kuwait while on tour in 2006, committed suicide in 2019.
In a previously unreleased statement she gave to her lawyers before her death, which was obtained by VICE News, Massaro alleged that McMahon propositioned her for sex.
The statement was not included in a lawsuit Massaro and others filed against the WWE because the case concerned concussions, Vice reported Friday.
However, it resurfaced just days after federal authorities launched an investigation into sex trafficking allegations leveled against McMahon by a former WWE staffer, Janel Grant, who suit the longtime wrestling kingpin last month.
McMahon, who resigned as chairman and CEO of WWE in the wake of Grant’s lawsuit, has denied Grant’s allegations.
The Post has sought comment from McMahon, WWE and TKO Group, the newly formed entity that was formed with WWE’s majority owner Endeavor.
Massaro’s statement before her death painted a terrifying image of McMahon as a sexual predator.
“I felt extraordinarily uncomfortable,” Massaro said, alleging that McMahon repeatedly called her to invite her to come to his hotel room alone late at night.
“He began calling the hotel room phone and my cell phone nonstop.”
Massaro, who joined the WWE in 2005 and was released in 2008, alleged that she saw McMahon “making out” with female wrestlers in the locker room and that he sexually harassed her.
When she rejected his overtures, Massaro alleged that McMahon wrote demeaning scripts for her to perform.
Massaro alleged that the scripts were designed to ruin her reputation and endanger her career.
Her sworn affidavit also alleged that McMahon and another WWE executive named in Grant’s lawsuit, John Laurinaitis, told her to keep quiet about an alleged rape that took place on a US Army base in 2006.
Massaro alleged that she was drugged and raped by a man who claimed to be a US Army doctor while she was on tour with WWE in Kuwait in 2006, according to a sworn affidavit released by her attorney following her death five years ago.
“The woman guarded the door while the man proceeded to inject me with a drug that caused me to be unable to move my body or to scream,” Massaro alleged in the affidavit.
“The man then proceeded to violently rape and sodomize me.”
Massaro said that she “was completely helpless to defend myself against this attack as the drug he injected rendered me temporarily paralyzed.”
“Despite being unable to control my movements, I remained fully conscious for every second of the attack,” she alleged.
The Naval Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) launched an investigation into Massaro’s claims. That investigation was closed in 2020, according to VICE News.
Massaro alleged in her affidavit that McMahon, Laurinaitis and other executives at WWE offices in Stamford, Conn., told her to keep quiet about the incident so as not to jeopardize the company’s relationship with the US military.
Massaro said that she reported the rape to a WWE doctor, who then told “WWE executives who soon thereafter met with Massaro to apologize for their negligence but persuaded her that it would be best not to report it to appropriate authorities.”
In court papers filed in 2016, WWE called Massaro’s allegations “stale and baseless,” and denied Massaro had ever reported a sexual assault to anyone affiliated with WWE, according to Vice.
Laurinaitis’ lawyer, Edward Brennan, told VICE News, “Any allegations that Mr. Laurinaitus helped to cover up an alleged rape allegation is an outright lie.”
“Johnny, like most upper level management at sometime became aware of the allegations and ensured all proper WWE protocols were followed, including privacy for the alleged victim. We object to the use of the term cover-up as no such plan or plot ever took place to hide or assist in the alleged rape.”
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
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