As we previously reported, five former WWE “ring boys” have filed a lawsuit against Vince McMahon, Linda McMahon, and WWE’s parent company TKO, alleging sexual abuse they experienced in the 1980s. The lawsuit claims that former WWE employees Mel Phillips and Terry Garvin were responsible for the abuse and asserts that both Vince and Linda McMahon were aware of the situation but failed to take action.
In response, Vince McMahon released a statement categorically denying the allegations and comparing the lawsuit to past claims made by journalist Phil Muschnick in the 1990s. However, in an interview with Post Wrestling (via Wrestling Inc), attorney Greg Gutzler, who represents the plaintiffs, addressed McMahon’s statement. Gutzler pointed out that McMahon did not deny having informed others that Phillips had an interest in young boys. He highlighted that McMahon had previously fired Phillips, only to rehire him later on the condition that he “steered clear of the kids.”
Gutzler further noted that while McMahon once filed a defamation lawsuit against Muschnick regarding similar claims, the fact that he eventually walked away from that case suggested that Muschnick’s allegations had merit.
Greg Gutzler said:
If you read the 81-page complaint, you are going to see multiple facts, myriad facts, dozens of facts that have nothing to do with Phil Mushnick. We had the fact that we had Mel Phillips, shuttling young boys in plain sight, in front of WWE executives and wrestlers, from state to state. You have him in plain sight staying in hotel rooms with young boys. You have in plain sight Mel Phillips engaging in sexual foot fetishes in the ring in front of people, in the locker room in front of wrestlers, and he was even provided his private dressing room in certain areas. You have the FBI videotape, where the FBI said — the behavioral science unit said — this is consistent with pedophilia and sexual foot fetishes.”
