In 1992, Rita Chatterton, the first female referee for the World Wrestling Federation, went on the talk show “Geraldo” to say she was sexually assaulted in 1986 by Vince McMahon, a founder of the W.W.F. and its chief executive at the time. More than just a successful leader, he helped create the figure of larger-than-life ringside hype man — the executive as protagonist — that would become a part of popular culture well beyond the world of wrestling.
Through tears, Chatterton described the quid pro quo episode:
I was forced into oral sex with Vince McMahon. When I couldn’t complete his desires, he got really angry, started ripping off my jeans, pulled me on top of him and told me again, if I wanted a half-a-million-dollar-a-year contract, I had to satisfy him. And if I didn’t satisfy him, I was blackballed. I was scared. My wrist was all black and blue. He just didn’t stop.
In “Mr. McMahon,” a new six-part Netflix documentary, McMahon, who turned professional wrestling into a billion-dollar business, rejects Chatterton’s allegations, calling them “crap.” He filed a lawsuit against her and Geraldo Rivera, among others, which he later withdrew. McMahon tells the offscreen interviewer, “Once you’re accused of rape, you’re a rapist, but it was consensual. And actually, had it been a rape, um, the statute of limitations had run out.”
That’s not the only allegation of sexual abuse that has swirled around the W.W.F. (which is now known as World Wrestling Entertainment, or W.W.E.). In the ’90s, there was also what’s referred to as the ring boy scandal, in which high-ranking wrestling officials were accused of sexually assaulting young men who performed menial tasks for the organization. Phil Mushnick, who covered the scandal for The New York Post, says in “Mr. McMahon,” “It was a pedophile ring. Three of these guys were all in on it. These were real kids being sexually abused on McMahon’s watch.”
Anthony White, the wrestler known as Tony Atlas, says that one of the men accused in the ring boy scandal touched his privates in the locker room. When the interviewer asks why he didn’t complain to McMahon, White chuckles long and ruefully and says, “You know nothing about the wrestling business, don’t you? There’s nobody to go to, son. You either take it or you’re going home. Who are you going to complain to?”
