A new report has claimed that several writers in WWE had suspicions about Vince McMahon’s alleged relationships as far back as 2005.
On July 8th the Wall Street Journal published new allegations involving claims of misconduct against Vince McMahon.
Their report alleges that McMahon paid more than $12 million to four women formerly associated with WWE over the course of 16 years.
Discussing the new report on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said he had spoken to several writers from the era the allegations stem from. He noted that one writer in particular had been suspicious about the way Vince McMahon would suddenly ask for certain women to be pushed despite their lack of experience.
“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.”
Moving onto the accusations by the paralegal at the heart of the original story, Meltzer says that she had never applied for a job with the company before Vince McMahon offered her one during a meeting between the two at Trump Hotel in Connecticut.
“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.”
Since these new allegations against Vince McMahon came to light, WWE issued a statement to staff reiterating that the company’s Board of Directors take the issue seriously and are continuing their investigation.
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the above transcription.