WWE must be held accountable for appalling treatment of Ashley Massaro

Former WWE wrestler Ashley Massaro was tragically found dead last week having reportedly taken her own life. She was just 39 years old.

In the wake of her untimely passing reports have resurfaced detailing the lawsuit Massaro joined in 2016, in which she alleged, among other issues, that WWE discouraged her from reporting that she was raped by US military personnel during a tour of Kuwait.

(Content warning for sexual assault and rape)

In what can only be described as a deeply inappropriately timed press release, WWE stated just days after Massaro’s death that she had apologized to the company for her part in the lawsuit. According to The Blast, Massaro’s email allegedly stated that, “The lawsuit got out of control very fast-I had been roped in by the lawyer representing the others.”

It’s a bad look for WWE, who appear more concerned about maintaining good PR than about Ashley Massaro and her family. And the details which have come to light may well explain why WWE made the statement. Chris Brosnahan published excepts from the affidavit on Twitter, and they do not make for pleasant reading.

In the affidavit, Massaro alleges that she was drugged and raped by a man claiming to be a US army doctor. The details of the rape are frankly horrifying, as indeed all rapes are. That it happened while Massaro was in her capacity as an employee of WWE is bad enough, but Massaro goes on to state that Vince McMahon “stressed that if [she] disclosed this incident, it would ruin the relationship between the WWE and the US Military. He told [Massaro] not to let one bad experience ruin the good work they were doing.”

As Massaro herself notes, it is at best insensitive and at worst downright callous to refer to a woman being drugged and raped as ‘one bad experience’. If an employee is attacked – particularly if they are attacked in their capacity as an employee – the correct response is absolutely not ‘sorry about that, but let’s not talk about it because we might upset someone.’ A violent assault is not a minor scuffle in the lunch line, or an argument in the locker room. It is a life-changing event.

Massaro’s account of her assault is a deeply harrowing read, not least because the alleged perpetrator was acting under the guise of a medical professional and under the banner of the US military. No woman should ever have to fear violence from an individual with so much responsibility. No woman should ever have to fear violence full stop, but the alleged perpetrator’s profession is not an insignificant factor in this offence.

Let’s be clear here: women should be able to do their jobs without threat of sexual assault and women should be able to feel secure in the knowledge that, should the worst happen, their employer will stand by them. They should be able to have confidence that their employer will put their safety, security and well being first, because actual human beings are more important than business deals. That Ashley Massaro says she was denied all of this is something we should be talking about. It is not normal.

Massaro states that she felt “defeated”. Worse still, she notes that she was left traumatised and utterly without support. What she describes following the attack are in keeping with the recognised symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder.

Despite living through a deeply traumatic and damaging incident, Massaro notes that at no point did WWE offer her counselling or therapy – surely the most basic form of support a company of WWE’s size could be expected to provide for an employee dealing with such a horribly life-altering event. For WWE to allegedly silence Ashley Massaro for the sake of good PR and not even follow up with basic care is frankly appalling.

Of the assault, Massaro says “This experience was by far the most traumatic and emotionally damaging thing that has ever happened to me and it and it haunts me to this day”.

It is inappropriate to speculate about the reasons why Massaro took her own life, and I will not attempt to. But unaddressed trauma does not contribute to a healthy mental state. Were Massaro still alive, WWE would owe her the same duty of care, and they would bear the same responsibility for forcing her to shoulder this horrific experience not only alone, but in secret.

The nature of Massaro’s allegations, and the course of action she took following WWE’s inaction, makes it very difficult to prove or disprove the events she describes. An eagle-eyed Reddit poster noted that an article written by Jimmy Hart and published on WWE’s website during the tour in Kuwait does at the very least corroborate Massaro’s claims that she was taken to a medical facility, apparently against her wishes, and was left there on her own:

“At the next autograph session, Ashley begins to swoon.  Our base escorts demand she be taken to the Medical Center, despite her protests to the contrary.” Massaro is noted by Hart to have been in a poor state throughout the rest of the event: “Gary then retrieves Ashley from the Medical Center. While still weak, she insists on participating in our last photo session on base.”

This does not prove or disprove Massaro’s allegations. It does, however, illustrate that she was telling the truth about certain key aspects.

Patches Chance is spot on when he notes that Ashley Massaro died from depression. And unfortunately WWE have form when it comes to leaving former employees high and dry. Former Women’s Champion Chyna openly struggled with mental health issues exacerbated by WWE’s ostracisation.

In both cases, it seems as though the instinct to distance themselves from a potentially sticky PR situation trumped the basic duty of care WWE should be providing to those women and men who routinely put their bodies in danger in the name of sports entertainment. WWE would (hopefully) never leave an employee to deal with a broken leg on their own; why should mental and emotional health be any different?

While perhaps the most grievous of WWE’s alleged failings, the assault on Ashley Massaro was not the only issue she brought up in her affidavit.

Massaro states that on multiple occasions the company showed a lackadaisical attitude to injuries: “In the past, when I had been injured, Dr. Rios had administered cortisone shots and prescribed pain medication and muscle relaxers for me, but I imagine he knew these were just “band-aids”used to allow me to continue to perform in the short-term. […] As Vince demonstrated when he ordered the crew to prematurely saw a cast off my hand, he was not concerned for my health or safety and was only concerned about putting on a show and making money.”

Even more concerning is Massaro’s allegation that “WWE used narcotics as a tool to allow me and other wrestlers to perform through our injuries. If we took enough pills, the pain went away (temporarily) and we were able to wrestle.” In an industry blighted by premature death, frequently hastened by addiction to and misuse of prescription medication, WWE’s alleged encouragement of this kind of risky behaviour is incredibly inappropriate.

Much has been made of WWE’s gruelling schedule, and of the toll it takes on the bodies of performers. And the pattern that is emerging – not just on the basis of Massaro’s allegations, but CM Punk’s allegations, the testimonies of Jimmy Snuka, Perry Saturn and King Kong Bundy among other plaintiffs – is that WWE cares more about keeping the wheels of its business greased and turning than it does the wellbeing of the employees who make the business possible.

Massaro goes on to discuss the long-term effects of the repetitive head injuries she sustained while working in a WWE ring: “I suffer from depression, for which I take medication;migraine headaches;and severe short-term memory loss […] I attribute these issues to my work-related injuries sustained while working for the WWE, and specifically to the routine repetitive blows to the head I received in the ring over the course of my care which were not properly diagnosed or treated, despite WWE’s admitted had and has a duty to take all reasonable steps to protect the health and safety of its performers and to inform its performers of the risks of long-term impairments from repetitive brain trauma.”

Massaro alleges that on one occasion, having been knocked unconscious, she was told to ‘brush it off’ – as though brain damage were a minor sprain. Furthermore, she states quite plainly that during this period the company were also dealing with the Chris Benoit murder-suicide and that there can be no doubt that they were aware of the risks posed by Chronic Traumatic Encepalopathy (CTE) – the long-term damage sustained by the brain following repeated concussions. That WWE would persist with its regressive and dangerous attitude to head injuries following one of the most high-profile and tragic CTE cases in its history is appalling.

Throughout Massaro’s statement she returns again and again to the fact that WWE turned a blind eye to her rape, to her resulting trauma, to her injuries and to her long-term symptoms. She paints a highly concerning picture of a company invested in brushing problems under the carpet, and employees who fear for their careers if they refuse to go quietly. Rob Van Dam has stated that he was repeatedly coerced by Vince McMahon after refusing to work on WWE’s Tribute to the Troops because he was burnt-out and exhausted. In his statement, he notes that other employees envied his refusal.

If what Massaro alleges is true – and it’s worth noting that just because the lawsuit as a whole failed does not mean Massaro’s statements cannot possibly be factual – then WWE’s tasteless statement begins to feel more like pre-emptive damage control. And it is slightly sickening, in this context, for WWE to post excerpts from Massaro’s email – without her consent or permission – praising WWE for ‘changing her life’. Massaro’s allegations are inclusive of the unspoken fact that people within WWE knew what had happened to her, and not a single person thought to protect her first and foremost.

A company that does not take full responsibility for the bodily and emotional well being of performers employed in such a relentlessly physical profession is a company acting negligently. A company which tells an employee to keep quiet about her violent rape is acting downright immorally. It is heartbreaking to realize that Ashley Massaro has been carrying this painful trauma alone for so many years. And though WWE may well refute her allegations, Massaro herself is sadly no longer here to defend herself.

Although I use the word ‘allegedly’, as is required legally in a scenario where nothing has yet been proven, I believe Ashley Massaro. I believe that she suffered terribly and was cast aside. I believe that she struggled for years since leaving WWE because of the experiences she had, inside and outside of the ring. And I believe that if someone with power had listened to her, and helped her, and believed her, perhaps she might still be with us today.

A GoFundMe has been set up by Lillian Garcia and other women in and around the wrestling industry to help support Ashley Massaro’s 18 year old daughter. Please consider supporting this worthy cause.

[Since I wrote this article, WWE have released the following statement regarding Ashley Massaro’s affidavit:]