Vince McMahon accused of sexually preying on WWE Divas in previously unreleased Ashley Massaro statement

A previously unreleased statement from Ashley Massaro alleges that Vince McMahon sexually preyed on her and other women in WWE.

Massaro worked for WWE between 2005 and 2008. In a statement given to her lawyers several years ago, the former wrestler said she was raped in 2006 during a WWE tour of Kuwait. She also accused WWE of covering up the sexual assault, which allegedly took place at a military base.

An unpublished section of Massaro's full statement, which has been obtained by VICE News, includes allegations against McMahon:

"During my time with the WWE, I had observed Vince McMahon making-out with other divas in the locker room, but he never paid attention to me, and I assumed I was not his type. This changed after my Playboy cover was released. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to fly on the company jet and stay at the same hotels as the executives for a period of time so that I could get home faster to spend more time with my daughter. On one of these occasions, Vince was attempting to get me alone with him in his hotel room late at night and I felt extraordinarily uncomfortable. He began calling the hotel room phone and my cell phone nonstop."

The release of the statement comes two weeks after former WWE employee Janel Grant accused Vince McMahon of sexual assault and trafficking. McMahon dismissed Grant's lawsuit as "replete with lies" before resigning from WWE's parent company TKO "out of respect."

---

Ashley Massaro claimed Vince McMahon tried to ruin her career

The statement goes on to allege that Vince McMahon purposely tried to make Ashley Massaro look bad after she rejected his advances.

Massaro added that she spoke to WWE's former head of production, Kevin Dunn, about McMahon's behavior. She also raised concerns to current creative team member Michael Hayes about the former WWE Executive Chairman writing promos for her:

"I called Kevin Dunn to explain the situation and he said I should tell Vince I was not feeling well and would see him on TV the next day, so I did. Immediately after that night, Vince started writing my promos for me. Vince does not write promos for female wrestlers—that is the job of the creative department—and he certainly wouldn’t have, under any normal circumstances, written a promo for me. But he did, and the promos were written with the clear intention of ruining my career."

She continued:

"I brought the first script Vince wrote for me to the WWE employee in charge of Creative at the time, Michael Hayes, and he said, ‘you’re not saying this, who the [expletive] wrote this?’ and I told him that Vince did. He said, ‘Well kid, these are the breaks,’ meaning that Vince wanted to end my career and destroy my reputation on my way out. He is known for this type of behavior and also did this to [REDACTED] upon her departure from WWE. In addition, after that night, each time I walk by him he would make vulgar sexual comments that were clearly designed to make me uncomfortable."

In 2019, Massaro passed away at the age of 39. She gave the statement to her lawyers before her death as part of a concussion-related lawsuit against WWE. However, members of her legal team decided to leave the allegations against Vince McMahon out of the lawsuit as the claims were not relevant to concussions.