Tag: WWE

WWE Issues Statement On Ashley Massaro Allegations

WWE has issued a statement in response to allegations made by lawyer Konstantine Kyros, who has represented several former WWE Superstars in concussion lawsuits against the company, including the late Ashley Massaro. Kyros has published an affidavit by Massaro that includes her allegations on how she was treated while with the company. Massaro alleged that she was sexually assaulted while visiting troops with WWE in Kuwait back in 2006.

Massaro alleged that she was drugged and raped by a man posing as a US Army doctor while in Kuwait on a tour of a US military base. She said she was examined by a WWE doctor after returning from the trip, and that the doctor reported the incident to WWE officials. Massaro alleged that WWE officials called her into a meeting, to apologize, and to persuade “her that it would be best not to report it to appropriate authorities.” You can read all of her claims in the full affidavit via PDF by clicking here.

WWE’s statement to the media in response to the allegations reads:

WWE is saddened by the death of Ashley Massaro, and we reiterate our condolences to her family. However, we regret that her attorney Konstantine Kyros, who filed multiple cases against WWE, lost all of them, and was sanctioned multiple times by the Court for repeated misconduct and false allegations, is using Ashley’s death to further his malicious campaign against WWE by releasing an affidavit that she submitted to the Court and later apologized to WWE for being involved with, so we wish to make certain things crystal clear.At no time was Vince McMahon or the management of WWE ever informed by Ashley Massaro or anybody else that she had been sexually assaulted, drugged, raped or sodomized by a military doctor with a nurse standing guard while on a goodwill tour in 2007 to U.S. military bases in Kuwait. In fact, if she ever articulated such a claim to WWE, we would have reported it immediately to the Base Commander.

At no time was there ever a meeting with Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn, John Laurinaitis or other company executives in which she told them of such a claim and was instructed to keep it quiet.

WWE recently revealed that Massaro e-mailed them back in October, a month after the lawsuit was dismissed, to apologize for joining the lawsuit. Below is WWE’s full statement with excerpts from Massaro’s e-mail:

Long after Ashley Massaro filed an affidavit, which WWE only learned of the contents after she passed away, Ashley sent an email to WWE on Oct. 20, 2018 – approximately one month after the Court dismissed all claims against WWE and sanctioned the lawyer who brought the suit against WWE, Konstantine Kyros, for repeated misconduct including pursuing false allegations. Below are a number of excerpts from her letter to WWE:”I love WWE, you all were my family the whole time I was there…”

“The lawsuit got out of control very fast-I had been roped in by the lawyer representing the others…”

“I apologize that I was part of this class action suit and knew it was a bad idea but was convinced by the lawyer and I want to acknowledge that I should’ve contacted you guys before agreeing to be involved-i was basically poached. But I accept my part of the responsibility and just want to formerly apologize and express my regret.”

“You all changed my life and I couldn’t be more grateful…”

“Can you express my sincerest regret to Vince, Stephanie, Hunter and Kevin Dunn.”

Massaro passed away last Thursday at the age of 39 after an apparent suicide by hanging. She would have turned 40 this coming weekend.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Ruby Riott Undergoes Shoulder Surgery, Additional Operation Required

Ruby Riott is out of action with injuries that required surgery on both of her shoulders.

According to WWE.com:

Raw Superstar Ruby Riott underwent successful surgery yesterday to repair a bilateral injury to her right shoulder, WWE.com can confirm.

Riott will receive surgery for the same injury on her left shoulder at a later date.

No word at this time on how long Ruby will be on the sidelines.

The Roast Of Ric Flair To Take Place At A Later Date

Starrcast has announced that the roast of WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair will take place at a later date to be announced.

As noted, The Nature Boy was forced to pull out of “The Roast of Ric Flair” scheduled for Friday night in Las Vegas during Starrcast II weekend, which coincided with AEW’s Double Or Nothing weekend. Flair underwent heart surgery on Monday and his doctors won’t allow him to travel to Vegas for the weekend events. Starrcast issued the following today:

“The good news is that Ric Flair’s surgery was a success. The bad news is that his doctor won’t allow him to travel this weekend. As a result, his Meet & Greets at #Starrcast are being refunded. The Roast of Ric Flair will have to be postponed to a later date yet to be determined.”

The roast of Flair was scheduled to air on pay-per-view and Fite.TV this Friday night. There’s no word yet on if it will still stream when it happens. Flair was also scheduled for a “30 Years and 5 Stars Later” panel with WWE Hall of Famers Ricky Steamboat and Jim Ross this week. Starrcast will be issuing refunds for all of Flair’s planned events.

Flair’s wife Wendy Barlow noted on Monday that the operation was a success and that Flair was in the recovery room. TMZ reported that doctors were optimistic Flair will make a full recovery. Flair was said to be in good spirits over the past few days, chatting with some of his famous friends on the phone, including rapper Offset.

Flair is scheduled to make his first post-surgery public appearance on Friday, May 31 for SCWPro at their “To Be The Man” event in East Moline, Illinois. SCWPro confirmed today that they have been in contact with Flair’s representatives, and that he will still make that appearance.

https://twitter.com/SCWPro/status/1130629464554135552

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Dolph Ziggler Returns, Viciously Attacked Kofi Kingston

Last night on SmackDown Live, Paul Heyman came out with Brock Lesnars’s Money in the Bank briefcase taunting WWE Champion Kofi Kingston. That’s when Dolph Ziggler made his surprise return to WWE viciously attacking Kofi.

Later Ziggler came out and explained why he did it. Ziggler says it should’ve been him instead of Kofi having all the success Kofi has had lately. Ziggler said he will ,make things right be defeating Kofi for the WWE Championship at WWE Super ShowDown on June 7 in Saudi Arabia.

WWE SmackDown Live Preview 5/21/19

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown Live will take place from the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island with fallout from WWE Money In the Bank.

* The New Day present Big E’s Welcome Back Celebration

* What will SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley say in exclusive interview?

* Roman Reigns and Elias clash in a WWE Money in the Bank rematch

* Who will bring the 24/7 Championship to SmackDown LIVE?

* Will Daniel Bryan’s tag team revolution continue?

WWE Changes The Look Of The Third Hour Of RAW (Video)

WWE made some changes to the look of the third hour of RAW last night.

As seen in the video above, Mick Foley announced that starting this week, the third hour will be getting “downright mean and nasty” and a “little bit dirty.” As he said that, the bright red and white logo on the tron switched to a more basic red logo on a black background. The house lights were dimmed and the LED lights were turned off on the ring posts.

You can see the visual changes occur at the 1:30 mark in the video below.

When RAW first moved to three hours weekly in 2012, the third hour was the highest rated hour for the first several weeks. That quickly started to change, and the third hour is now almost always the least watched hour. Over the past four weeks, the audience has dropped an average of 19% from the first hour to the third.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Mick Foley Introduced New WWE 24/7 Title

Last night on WWE RAW, Mick Foley unveiled the newest WWE Championship –  the 24/7 title.

Foley kicked off the segment talking about how RAW has lost something. He then pulled out the green-strapped 24/7 Championship and explained that the belt has the same rules as the old Hardcore title.

This means the champ has to defend the belt at all times as long as a referee is present.

Mick claimed the third hour of RAW every week will start to get “downright mean and nasty” and a “little bit dirty” and that whoever could grab the belt from the center of the ring would be the first champion. This ended up being Titus O’Neil, then was pinned by Robert Roode. Throughout the show, Roode was running and hiding from a group of wrestlers coming for the title. Later R-Truth helped him hide in the trunk of his car as Truth sent the others in the wrong direction. Truth let him out and Roode opened the car door and a referee got out and truth pinned Roode to become the new 24/7 champion and drove off.

Competitors from RAW, SmackDown, 205 Live, NXT, NXT UK and WWE legends are eligible to compete for the new title.

This brings the total number of main roster titles to 11.

WWE RAW Preview 5/20/19

Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the Times Union Center in Albany, NY will fallout from Money in the Bank.

* Welcome to the era of “Mr. Money in the Beast”

* WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley to unveil a new WWE Title

* Uso Rules – The Usos weigh challenge from The Revival and non-title win over SmackDown Tag Team Champions Rowan and Daniel Bryan

* Becky One Belt – It seems Becky vs. Lacey is about to start a furious second act

Lana Claims WWE Stealing Her Storyline Ideas And Giving Them To Other Talent

Lana is claiming WWE’s creative team is stealing her ideas.

The WWE Superstar took to social media late Sunday night / early Monday morning to call WWE out for taking an idea she pitched to creative for herself and giving it to another Superstar to use.

“I love watching shows and seeing stories I wrote and pitched given to other people,” Lana wrote. “This might be the 10th time this has happened in the past year.”

Lana added, “Good to know I’m really creative that my ideas are given to others.”

She did not elaborate on which storyline idea she was referencing.

https://twitter.com/LanaWWE/status/1130335103262044161

Brock Lesnar Kept Hidden Backstage At WWE Money In The Bank

Brock Lesnar made a surprise return at the WWE Money In the Bank pay-per-view and won the men’s Money In the Bank Ladder match main event. WWE did an angle earlier in the night where Braun Strowman took out Sami Zayn, leaving spot open for Lesnar to return.

Lesnar was hidden away from most everyone else in the backstage area, according to PWInsider. There had been some rumors earlier in the day of Lesnar appearing, but no one could confirm he was there. Only a small group of people were aware of Lesnar’s return before he appeared backstage in the Gorilla position with WWE officials.

None of the men’s MITB Ladder Match competitors in the match were aware of Lesnar’s return ahead of time. PWInsider reports that the competitors were told that there would be a spot at the end of the match where Ali would be standing on top of the ladder, and would be tipped over. They were not told who would be coming out to do the spot.

There was also talk throughout the day that Ali would be winning the match, another sign that WWE took extreme measures to keep Lesnar’s return a secret.

Lesnar was never seen on Sunday until he came to the Gorilla Position towards the end of the main event.

Lesnar vs. WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins has been rumored for WWE’s Super ShowDown event from Saudi Arabia on June 7, but there’s no word yet on if this will be his MITB cash-in. WWE will be announcing more Super ShowDown matches on RAW.

Source: Wrestling Inc.