Law&Crime Sidebar - Vince McMahon Let WWE Announcer Sexually Abuse 'Ring Boys': Lawsuit

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

Five John Does are suing WWE, its former CEO Vince McMahon, and more, alleging sexual abuse. The men claim the company and its leadership were aware that former ringside announcer Melvin Phillips Jr. was sexually exploiting children. Law&Crimes Jesse Weber discusses the allegations with Tom Campbell, a presenter for Cultaholic Wrestling.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you took the Depo Shot and were later diagnosed with a brain tumor you may qualify for compensation. Visit https://www.Deposhotclaims.com/Sidebar to answer less than 10 questions and check your eligibility to file a claim.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Breaking news, Vince McMahon is stepping aside. The lawsuit accusing him of countless depraved and humiliating acts. It was the release of the Netflix Mr. McMahon that put a spotlight on the controversial businessman's fall from Grace. And now the former W.W.E. CEO is in more hot water. As a new lawsuit alleges, he allowed rampant child sexual abuse to occur under his watch and allegedly did nothing to stop it. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

Hey, guys, this is a law and crime legal alert. So recent studies have uncovered a link between Depo Provera, aka the Depo shot, and an increased risk of brain tumors. Yeah, lawsuits are being filed against Pfizer, the manufacturer of Depo Provera, alleging that they failed to warn patients and doctors about this risk and instead rushed the drug to market while downplaying the adverse event reports. So if you've been diagnosed with a brain tumor or you're experiencing symptoms like headaches, vision problems, seizures, other neurological issues, you may qualify for compensation. And Wright and Schulte, one of our legal sponsors, is a national firm.

helping those injured to ensure their claims are thoroughly presented. Visit deposhotclaims.com slash sidebar to answer less than 10 questions and check your eligibility to file a claim. Vince McMahon, the once revered CEO whose legacy is intertwined with World Wrestling Entertainment, now faces a new wave of allegations regarding sexual abuse. Five former W.W.E. Ringboys have come forward accusing McMahon, his wife Linda, the W.E., and TKO Group Holdings. This is the league's parent company

of allowing former ringside announcer Melvin Phillips Jr. to use his position to sexually exploit and abuse young children. Yeah, this lawsuit, it was filed on behalf of five John Doe alleging that Phillips would recruit young boys to work for him, helping him run errands to set things up for the WWE events. However, this was all allegedly in exchange for sex. This complaint, I will tell you, has multiple facets to it.

So we're going to first start by unpacking the accusations against Phillips. This lawsuit alleges, quote, Phillips real motivation in loring the ring boys with the promise of gaining access to the popular WW events was to sexually abuse them. It goes on further to say, quote, Phillips lured and manipulated the young boys with promises of meeting famous wrestlers and attending the highly popular wrestling shows, experiences that were otherwise unattainable for these kids.

And the suit even alleges that Phillips targeted young boys who were impoverished. and, quote, even routinely traveled with them in plain sights, staying together in hotel rooms and driving in his car to WWE events. And there may even have been physical evidence of this alleged abuse because the complaint argues, quote, at some venues, defendants even provided Phillips with his own private dressing room where he would use his own expensive video camera to film his sexual escapades. It's even mentioned that a WW employee surrendered a tape to the FBI, and that tape apparently contained some very disturbing material because according to the complaint, it says, quote,

on August 3rd, 1993, the U.S. Attorney's Office acquired the half-inch videotape in which it's believed to show Phillips' unusual foot fetish. A review of the tape by NYU shows Phillips lying with, and the name is redacted, foot in crotch area for an extended period of time. And one particular part of this complaint that's really tragic says that one young boy was so traumatized, but by what had happened, that he ended up taking his own life. In the lawsuit, it reads, the WWE reached a financial settlement with the young boy. He implored his brother to tell his story, and his last known words were remembered to tell them the WWW and the McMans what they did to me. So the general theme here was the boys were given a job. They were given

access to the WWE arena, all in exchange for involuntary sexual favors. Now, what's specifically are each of these alleged individuals claiming? Well, the first John Doe was 13 years old when he met Phillips in the 80s, where he says Phillips raped him in a private room inside of the Springfield Civic Center arena after offering him a job there. He says the abuse spanned multiple states where he would travel with Phillips, that he would be given alcohol and hush money. John Doe number two was also 13 years old when he met Phillips in 1984 in an event where he says, claims that Phillips invited him to a dressing room and then wrestled him to the ground, touching him inappropriately. He said that Phillips would pin him to the ground so that he was

unable to move while he violated him. In fact, there's actually a photo of this young boy being pinned to the ground by who appears to be Phillips. It's embedded in this complaint. John Doe number three, states he met Phillips in the mid-1980s when he was approximately 14 years old and traveled with him to Philadelphia for a show at the Spectrum Arena where they stayed at a hotel. It was there, he says, where he was very in a similar fashion pinned to the ground and touched inappropriately. He even says a wrestler approached him and warned him, be careful around Phillips. John Doe number four met Phillips in the 80s when he was around 14 and he says that he was picked up by Phillips driven around Philadelphia. You have two confidential witnesses who were listed in the

complaint. They allegedly saw this fourth John Doe leave with Phillips. returned, sometimes drunk, or leave and stay with Phillips overnight at a hotel. And this fourth John Doe also alleges that he was sexually abused at a WWE show at the spectrum. And then the fifth John Doe met Phillips around the age of 15, was taken to a WWE event at the Capitol Center in Landover, Maryland. He says he was forcibly intoxicated and then taken to a hotel where he was touched inappropriately. So with all of these horrifying allegations, how much did Vince McMahon know? Well, apparently, or allegedly, he was made aware of these incidents decades ago, and it says, quote, and Vince McMahon knew it, admitting that he was aware, at least as early as the 1980s, that Phillips had a peculiar, an unnatural interest in young boys.

Mr. McMahon has never denied making that admission, despite countless instances of the last 40 decades, if it were untrue, he would have stridently denied it. So not only did he allegedly know about it, he also allegedly turned a blind eye to it completely, as alleged by the WWE. operations manager Nelson Sweggler, who is quoted in the book Sex Lies and Headlocks, the real story of Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment, as having said, quote, everyone knew what was going on, but would have taken someone within the brotherhood to have moved on it, and none of the people who knew about it moved on it. Vince McMahon actually did fire Phillips back in the 1988 after allegations about this sexual abuse or exploitation began to surface, but in a bizarre turn of events, he supposedly

made a chilling decision that allowed or allegedly allowed this abuse to continue. This is alleged by Phil Mushnick, a New York Post columnist, who wrote that McMahon made a startling confession to him back in 1992. Vince McMahon told West Coast-based journalist Dave Meltzer, then me, that he had let Phillips go four years ago because Phillips' relationship with kids seemed peculiar and unnatural. McMahon said he rehired Phillips with the caveat that Phillips steer clear from kids, but ultimately it would be alleged that he did not steer clear from the kids. Now, among the unnamed victims in the complaint, there is also a slew of named individuals who have come forward to claim sexual abuse occurred at various times in WW's history.

Ringboy Tom Cole said he was harassed by several of the employees when he was a minor. Superstar Billy Graham and wrestler Billy Jack Haynes said sexual harassment by WWE administrators had become openly ridiculous by the mid-1980s. wrestler Barry Orton described several WWE executives offering pay raises and career advancements in exchange for sexual favors. And then you have former wrestler Nicole Bass

filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against WWE in the early 2000s claiming groping and grabbing on a plane by a long time WWE employee. And while Vince McMahon is accused of allowing all of this to occur under his watch, he's also in the past faced accusations directly

accusing him of sexual abuse. And in fact McMahon had returned to WWW. He's board in January of 2023 following a sexual abuse settlement, but then he stepped down from the parent company, TKO, in January of this year, following allegations of sexual assault and trafficking. We've talked about these claims associated with Janelle Grant before he denies these allegations. All right, joining me now is somebody we haven't had on in quite some time, but we had him on when everything was breaking with Vince McMahon earlier this year. I want to bring on from cultaholic. It's a wrestling news outlet expert in this area. Campbell, thank you so much for coming on. It's good to see you. Talk to me about what you make of these, this lawsuit. And I don't know if a lot of people are familiar about ring boys and what

their job was. Yeah, so a ring boy was somebody that would be brought in normally for free as an opportunity to get closer to the programming that they loved. It was an opportunity to hang around with the wrestlers. And for the company, it was a lot of the time, essentially some free labor to come in and put the ring up this whole concept of entering the wrestling industry via paying your dues is where this stems from a lot of people who so passionately wanted to be a part of the wrestling world were welcomed in through the route of getting the ring up putting the ring down basically being runners for pro wrestling shows with that comes cases like this one these allegations make for really difficult reading where you have a lot of young people

infatuated with the idea of becoming pro wrestlers or being around the pro wrestling world that according to these allegations that go back to the 80s and have been brought up as you say by Phil Mushnik show a real lack of responsibility and a real a real example of advantages being taken by young people just passionately wanting to be around professional wrestling. By the way, didn't McMahon sue Mushnik for defamation? He did indeed, yes. So this was after Phil Mushnik started openly talking about what he was hearing. And not many people were talking about it, very much a brotherhood within the world of wrestling.

And this is what allowed these things to go on for so long. Phil Mushnik becoming one of the very few people that actually openly spoke about what was happening. happening. And so important is Phil Mushnik to this particular equation that Vincent Mann's attorney, Jessica Rosenberg, in response to this most recent lawsuits, released a statement of Brandon Thurston. And Phil Mushnick is mentioned in there again as someone who tried to make headlines with false claims. Even recent as last week, Phil Mushnick was brought on to Pierce Morgan's show as a surprise guest on the night that they talked about. Mr. McMahon allegations. And it led to a very aggressive spat between Phil Mushtick and former

WWE writer Vince Russo. So I think Phil Mushnick getting sued by Vince McMahon was an example being sent to people who might want to go against the brotherhood of wrestlers who might want to speak out against some of the things that they saw. And I think it was done to say, look, if you go against this wrestling fraternity, we're going to take you to the cleaners. Like we will Phil Mushnik. Obviously, Phil's still here and still practicing, but he was very much used as an example, I think, in that court case.

How much has Vince McMahon or the company denied that there was sexual abuse or exploitation of these young boys? I kind of mentioned it, but to what a degree have they denied this? Well, again, in a recent, in the recent statement by the, by J.C. wrote, by Jessica Rosenberg, Vincent Mann's attorney. She mentions how more than 30 years ago, there were headlines with false claims, allegations never proven, ultimately becoming the subject of defamation against Mr. Mushnick, I think at every opportunity, they have absolutely shut these allegations down. And because, I mean, when you talk, look at an industry that is very much one that is rife with allegations. The fact that Jesse, you and I have spoken so many times in the last two years suggests that there is a lot in the seedy underbelly of wrestling. It would suggest that there is a lot to die, there's a lot of bad,

there's a lot of bad things going on allegedly underneath it. This particular one, arguably, and it's not to, not to make light of anything else that come before it, arguably if these allegations turn out to be true they are the most damning of all what has been the effect so far of these allegations coming out now resurfacing or this lawsuit has it effect viewership if it is taken to trial and it's proven that this happened talk to me about what you think the effect will be on the company well i wouldn't be surprised if these allegations do turn a lot of people off wwe uh but having said that you know

in all that has come before it, WWE still have record viewers. They still sell out arenas all around the world. And whilst you really hope that there would be like a massive impact from this, I think to make a statement, I honestly don't think that they will. And again, it's not to make light of the things of these appalling allegations

because they are appalling. But I think as a society, it's a similar vein to how people will buy cheap items. from online outlets, despite some of the alleged poor work environments of the people making them. It's how people will support celebrities despite allegations of harassment and abuse against them. WWE fans, like a lot of pop culture fans, are able to separate the art from the artists in this case. I genuinely don't see a massive change in how WWE makes money regardless of how this case goes. because currently we're going through this stage now

where WWE are distancing themselves from that era. I think everybody who was involved in these allegations are either no longer with the company, they're either completely gone from the company for good or they have passed on. The Netflix documentary paints very much an image of a WWE before and a WWE now. And I think that's a big part of where WWE currently is and how they will continue to prosper despite this.

Melvin Phillips, if we're talking about talent, I was shocked that given these accusations, he was rehired. What was the level of talent? Did he bring to ringside announcing that did he, his value outweigh the risk? I mean, I wasn't familiar with him. I don't know too much about him. But the idea that when these allegations were surfacing, why was he just that immediately terminated, never hired back? Talk to us about that. It's such an interesting one as to why this was the case.

As you say, Mel Phillips was fired back in 1988, rehired with a mandate to stay away from children, which immediately states that there was awareness of what he was doing. in terms of his talent as a ring announcer i mean you in a sensible person's head it doesn't matter how good you are at whatever you do something of this nature you shouldn't be around you simply shouldn't and i don't i i i there's not enough known about mel phillips as a ring announcer but what we do know and what we can ascertain from these allegations and from the lengths in which uh the company has gone to to make good and hide and push and deny that there was a strong brotherhood within wrestling that kept very close together. It wasn't just Mel Phillips.

Obviously, Mel Phillips is the name that's coming up. And this Terry Garvin's name has also been named. He was somebody that worked very closely with Mel Phillips. Paterson is a name that has also come up, particularly during the Netflix documentary. That name came up through WWE Legend Tony Atlas as well. Well, so Mel Phillips is, I think, one name that was part of a bit of an intricate unit of people. And I don't think it speaks to him as a person, but maybe his role in a collective. And look, this lawsuit seems to imply that more people could come forward, which would be, you know, heighten this story and take it to a different level and take the case to a different level.

You mentioned the Netflix documentary. While I have you, what did you make of that? I've fascinating a fascinating watch so the Netflix documentary I don't know whether you know this Jesse was actually Vince McMahon's idea well before you get that apparently I'm in it by the way apparently my voice is in yes they used the clip of sidebar in there didn't know but it's like when I'm mentioning some of these allegations that are with with respect to Janelle grant that are quite wild you hear my voice in it that's a side note but yeah so so Vince McMan's idea to make this?

It was, yes, it was Vincent Mann's idea. So they've been a documentary a few years ago on HBO about the life of Andre the giant that told this fascinating story about this larger than life character. And Vince McMahon had said to the people who develop this one, like, I want a similar thing. I want the story of my life to be told. And it was only as they were kind of wrapping up the filming of a major part of the documentary that these allegations started coming to light.

And upon these allegations hit it. And upon Vince McMahon and his team seeing the early cut of the documentary, Vince McMahon himself tried to buy the documentary back because Vince could see that he felt he wasn't being painted in the right light. So he wanted to take ownership of it. Netflix refused to and they carried on regardless. So if people have watched it and wondered why they don't really go to town with the allegations, and it's because the documentary was sort of three quarters of the way done

when these allegations came out, The last half an hour is very much devoted to it. But there was a statement that was put out by Vince McMahon ahead of it, in which he was upset with the fact that the documentary makers were unable to differentiate between the person, Vince McMahon, and the character, the anti-hero, if you like, Mr. McMahon. And one of the parts of this documentary is it features Vince McMahon say, I mean, Vincent Mann, who says there's, you know, there's no, there's nothing similar

between me and the character, Mr. McMahon, were different people, to which then you have a row of every single person in the documentary going, yeah, they're one and the same. Very much saying, no, we didn't know where the lines were. The one thing I noticed about Vincent Mann that I'd never noticed before until I watched this documentary is there is a real vein of plausible deniability in everything that he does. and it comes back to this idea that, and it's come up in a few, it's come up a few times where he said,

well, look, if people had a problem with the way that the company was run, why didn't they go to the higher-ups? Why didn't they go to the authorities? Well, there's been so many things that have been said about this culture of fear that was the WWE had at that point that nobody felt comfortable to do that.

Tony Atlas, who's one of the people interviewed in this Mr. McMahon documentary, talks about in the documentary being sexually assaulted by Paterson, one of the bookers there. And when asked by the interviewer, why didn't you report it? Tony Atlas very literally laughs the idea off. And that was the issue.

And this is what comes back to the recent allegations around the ringboys in the 80s was the idea that if you weren't happy with what was happening, what do you do? Do you go to management and tell them and then have any dreams of working within, wrestling and have any credibility dashed? No, you stay quiet. And that was where a lot of this comes from. And there is this plausible deniability that I think Vincent Mann has, which is

allowed him to sort of throw his arms up a lot of the things that are talked about in the documentary and go, well, look, I can't say that was how I saw things. That's a really, really good point. You know, to add on that, if he says, why not go to authorities? I mentioned before when it came to Melvin Phillips, the feds were involved at one point, right? Do we know why that wasn't advanced? If you have, if you know or no, no or not. I don't know enough about when they were initially involved. I can only point it back to this, this sort of old school nature of the boys looking after the boys and protecting others. So that, I couldn't speak to that particular case. Sure. Tom, listen, this is incredibly helpful.

We're getting a lot more insight into what was going on in this world or allegedly going on in this world. But these allegations just get worse and worse and worse. And this is different. This has a different energy to it than what we were talking about before. Equally is disturbing. But now, you know, who knows what can come out next. Tom Campbell, thanks so much for coming on. Tell everybody where they can find you.

I live at Coultholic Wrestling. You can find us on YouTube. And on all your socials, just search Coultholic. We live there. There you go. Tom Campbell. Appreciate it. All right, everybody, that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. Plus join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.