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According to newly revealed court documents, WWE management knew wrestler Ashley Massaro had been assaulted then denied it after she killed herself.
The attorney for former WWE Head of Talent Relations (and stepfather to the Bella Twins) John Laurinaitis confirmed that he and “most upper level management” knew about the sexual assault allegations even though the company publicly denied it.
Shortly after Ashley Massaro committed suicide at the age of 39, WWE issued a statement in which the company claimed, “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. 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.”
It now turns out that VICE is reporting that Naval Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) did, in fact, open an investigation into Massaro’s allegations in June 2019.
In a sworn affidavit, Ashley Massaro claimed Vince McMahon said, “He told me not to let one bad experience ruin the good work they were doing.”
Former WWE wrestler Paul London, who dated Massaro while they were both with WWE, claims she was also a victim of Vince McMahon himself.
“I’m not surprised by any of it,” he said on a recent podcast.
Massaro’s lawyer Konstantine Kyros even at one point published the sworn affidavit Massaro signed where she described her assault in Kuwait and the response by WWE to her reporting it.
In that statement, Massaro claimed, “Vince [McMahon] led the meeting with these men and asked me to recount what happened in Kuwait. Then he said it was not in the best interest of the WWE for me to make the information about my attack public. I was still completely traumatized at that point and I just agreed. It was clear that there had already been a conversation and that they had reached a decision on their own prior to consulting with me as this was not a debate but rather Vince instructing me to keep this confidential.”
Dr. Ferdinand Rios, who WWE had examine Massaro upon her return to the United States, has since gone on record claiming the WWE’s denial that the meeting happened was not true. He also said the assault on Massaro was common knowledge among top WWE executives.
He claimed that when he went to speak with John Laurinaitis about the incident, “He already knew and no one wanted to give me any further details about it.”