Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzales covered the recent Vince McMahon allegations published in the Wall Street Journal on Friday. As was noted in the article, at least one of the accusers was a former talent who later received a massive $7.5 million settlement after allegedly being coerced into giving McMahon oral sex. Dave Meltzer said he recently spoke to writers who were in the company in the mid-2000s and there were some who were suspicious about certain talent getting pushed very quickly after signing with 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.”
On 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 pointed out how the story about McMahon forcing oral sex to the ex-wrestler fits a pattern because McMahon was alleged to have done the same thing to Rita Chatterton in 1986. The other allegation reported by the WSJ about McMahon sending unsolicited nude photos lines up with the story about the alleged sexual assault at the tanning salon in Boca Raton, FL.
McMahon and his attorney Jerry McDevitt have not publicly commented on the latest Wall Street Journal story.
