Discrimination & Wrongful Termination Lawsuit Filed Against WWE & Vince McMahon

A discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit was recently filed against WWE and WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that this lawsuit was filed on Tuesday by former WWE writer Britney Abrahams to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. In her 31-page lawsuit, Abrahams is claiming that she was discriminated against and fired for her objections over “offensively racist and stereotypical jargon” in scripts for black WWE talent. Abrahams is also claiming that her complaints were ignored by WWE officials and was let go by the company for taking home a commemorative WrestleMania 37 chair, which she believes was just a cover for the real reason for her firing.

Besides McMahon, Abrahams is also suing former WWE co-CEO Stephanie McMahon, WWE SVP Christine Lubrano, WWE executive Ryan Callahan, WWE creative writers Chris Dunn and Jen Pepperman, and former WWE creative writer Mike Heller.

In her filing, Abrahams is also claiming that she “asserts that Defendants engaged and continue to engage in a pattern and practice of discrimination against black female employees, African American female employees, and employees who engage in protected conduct on behalf of themselves and other minority employees.”

In one example, Abrahams stated that she had been asked by WWE Executive Director Bruce Prichard to write some vignettes for Bianca Belair. Abrahams stated that she had shadowed fellow writer Dunn who was also writing vignettes for Belair that was discovered to contain offensive and racist jargon.

“The said scene included offensively racist and stereotypical jargon which Plaintiff found objectionable.

By way of example, according to the script, DUNN intended Ms. Belair, the said black female WWE wrestler, to say, “Uh-Uh! Don’t make me take off my earrings and beat your ass!” which are lines based upon cruel, ugly stereotypes of dark-skinned, black women.

Plaintiff asserts that Ms. Belair uttering that line was, and still is, negatively stereotypical of race and gender, and Plaintiff found it offensive, and still finds it offensive.

Prior to the writing of this scene many of the WWE writers commonly complained that they didn’t know what to do with Ms. Belair.

As a result, Plaintiff undertook researching Ms. Belair’s background, and discovered a fascinating family tree, including an aunt who helped desegregate her high school in the 1960s, and an uncle whose contributions to science were world-renowned.

DUNN allowed Plaintiff to write a first draft of Ms. Belair’s scene, so Plaintiff included positive references to Ms. Belair’s rich family history and sent it to DUNN for feedback.

DUNN told Plaintiff that the draft “looks great. I’m going to make some edits and submit it to [CALLAHAN].”

However, DUNN subjected Plaintiff’s draft to substantial editing, including inserting the said racial Case.  That same night, Plaintiff complained about the racially offensive and discriminatory nature of the scene to one of her WWE superiors, Defendant CALLAHAN.

Plaintiff emailed CALLAHAN and said, “I know I’m new, I’m not trying to be disrespectful or step on [DUNN]’s or anyone’s toes, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that [Ms. Belair]’s scene includes racial jargon and offensive stereotypes, particularly her go-home line.”

Plaintiff also requested clarification for protocol on moving forward with her complaint.

In conversation with Ms. Belair the following day, Ms. Belair informed Plaintiff that she told DUNN “3 DIFFERENT TIMES THAT I DON’T WANT TO SAY THAT LINE! BUT HE NEVER LISTENS TO ME! HE PUTS THAT LINE IN EVERY WEEK.”

Ms. Belair said the script’s discriminatory line(s) made her look “ghetto.”

Plaintiff relayed this information to DUNN and politely offered to edit the line(s).

However, despite Plaintiff’s complaint, Defendants failed and/or refused to take any immediate or appropriate corrective action in response.

Plaintiff never received any form of response from CALLAHAN, verbally nor via email, and CALLAHAN never spoke to Plaintiff about her email or the line(s), or the scene.

Additionally, WWE’s failure and/or refusal to address Plaintiff’s complaint emboldened WWE employees, including DUNN and CALLAHAN, to further discriminate against and to retaliate against Plaintiff in response to her protected conduct.

By way of example, WWE kept the discriminatory line in the script. Plaintiff was scheduled to shadow DUNN on two (2) scenes that day, one of which was the said scene with Ms. Belair.

However, around halfway through the day, DUNN informed Plaintiff that she would now shadow CALLAHAN.

When Plaintiff requested DUNN’s assistance, he told Plaintiff “YOU HANDLE IT. IT’S YOUR SCENE NOW.”

CALLAHAN showed up for the taping of Plaintiff’s scenes about 90 seconds before they went live, and he never once mentioned Plaintiff’s email.

Defendants switched Plaintiff’s assignment and made her shadow WWE’s lead writer, who was not present until the show filmed live.

The switch in assignment was due to Plaintiff’s race, and gender and had the purpose and effect of sabotaging Plaintiff’s career with the WWE, and to serve as a pretext for retaliatory adverse actions.

Defendants did not provide Plaintiff with any training on what needed to be done during the live broadcast.

Defendants’ actions were clearly discriminatory as similarly situated white, male WWE employees are not treated in this manner.

Defendants’ actions in this regard were clearly retaliatory, given the temporal proximity between Plaintiff’s protected conduct and WWE’s adverse employment actions.

Defendants’ actions in this regard were done to humiliate, intimidate and undermine the Plaintiff’s performance as she had never been tasked with this responsibility and had no idea of the new role’s requirements.”

Abrahams is claiming that following her complaint over this issue, the defendants increased the intensity of their discriminatory misconduct, which included her being deliberately subjected to a number of racist creative ideas pitches. One of these racist pitches allegedly involved Reggie, current Scrypts in NXT, would be completely dressed up as a drag woman and would compete in tag team matches with Carmella. Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, and WWE SVP were allegedly to be supportive of this idea but only backed down after being told by another writer of the negative nature of this idea and plans.

It was also alleged that WWE officials “forced wrestler Apollo Crews to speak with a Nigerian accent, just because of his Nigerian lineage. Apollo Crews is a black, Nigerian-born male.” Abarahams is claiming that she had emailed WWE executive Ryan Callahan over her complaints about the “offensive nature of the requirement for  Apollo Crews to speak with a stereotypical and exaggerated Nigerian accent” but Callahan refused or failed to take corrective action resulting in her to be forced to “to require Apollo Crews to speak with a racially artificial Nigerian accent.”

In another example, Abrahams claimed that Callahan had pitched a gimmick for then NXT talent Shane Thorne in 2021 that was described as a “Caucasian male wrestler with a “hunting” gimmick would hunt a black, male wrestler for fun” with the idea of him playing off the Crocodile Hunter but him hunting people instead of crocodiles. In the lawsuit, it was alleged that “a storyline was pitched by CALLAHAN where Shane would capture Reggie and constantly beat him up, but Reggie would always escape after being captured.”

In another example, Abrahams claimed that Callahan had also pitched a creative idea for Mansoor, who is a Muslim, would be involved in a potential storyline that would reveal him as being behind the 9/11 terror attacks. This idea was meant to be part of a love storyline involving Mansoor, Aliyah, and Angel Garza and would revolve around Mansoor keeping a dark secret about himself from Aliyah.

The lawsuit is also claiming that senior WWE writer Jen Pepperman “discriminatorily treated Plaintiff and other black, and African American WW employees poorly compared to their similarly-situated white, and Caucasian counterparts” and that “Pepperman’s comments and conduct had the purpose and effect of humiliating and intimidating Plaintiff, and their severity and pervasiveness dramatically altered Plaintiff’s work environment for the worse.”

The lawsuit is also claiming that a black female writer’s assistant was fired in November of 2021 following her reporting Callahan for “creating a racially hostile environment against African American employees.”

In regards to her own firing over a commemorative WrestleMania chair, Abrahams is claiming that “WWE did not subject employees to disciplinary action in response to taking the removable, temporary seating, limited edition WrestleMania branded chairs, from the WrestleMania events.” Abrahams is claiming that WWE’s writers had asked and were granted permission to take the chairs but only after the show was over. Despite giving her permission, Pepperman is alleged to have “emailed the writing team instructing people to return the WrestleMania 38 branded chairs and demanding why they thought taking the WrestleMania branded chairs was a “wise choice.”

In the filing, Abrahams stated that she was fired on April 7, 2022 over her claims that it was done in “retaliation for engaging in protected conduct Defendants unlawfully and pretextually terminated Plaintiff’s employment.” Abrahams is claiming that WWE’s claims of firing her over taking a WrestleMania chair was just an excuse and cover up for the real reason being due to her voicing her concerns about company actions.

Abrahams is currently seeking to be awarded “damages in an amount to be determined at trial, but in any event in excess of the jurisdictional limit of any other court which might otherwise have jurisdiction over this matter, plus prejudgment interest, to compensate Plaintiffs for all monetary and/or economic damages, including but not limited to, the loss of past and future income, wages, compensation, seniority, and other benefits of employment.”