A former WWE writer, Britney Abrahams, who helped develop characters and create storylines, is suing the wrestling entertainment organization over alleged racist scripts and discriminatory practices.
Vince McMahon, who has been involved in numerous controversies in his career, including most recently paying WWE for the hush money he used to pay women he had affairs with or had sexually assaulted, will now (unsurprisingly) be associated with yet another controversy.
The news will likely not come as a shock to wrestling fans, who have witnessed McMahon personally involve himself in storylines where he uses racist dialogue, including one infamous moment in 2005 where he thought it was smart to use the N-word on live television. Despite playing a character, he was criticized for (reportedly happily) putting himself in that position, and having no issue using racist language — apparently, it was his own idea.
In regards to the lawsuit, Bloomberg Law reports that Abrahams began working for WWE in 2020, and claims to have had numerous experiences in which racist stereotypes were strongly encouraged for certain characters. The lawsuit offers multiple examples, including allegations that the WWE wanted a Black wrestler, Apollo Crews, to “speak with a stereotypical and exaggerated Nigerian accent,” and wanted an unnamed Muslim wrestler to have a background that he was behind the 9/11 attacks.
The powers that be also allegedly wanted Bianca Belair, a hugely popular Black wrestler on the roster, to say in response to another wrestler, “Uh-uh! Don’t make me take off my earrings and beat your ass.”
Additionally, the lawsuit claims that scriptwriters were in a Slack group chat with Vince and his daughter, Stephanie McMahon, where the writers would allegedly suggest stereotypical behavior.
Abrahams claims that she objected to the constant pushing of racist ideas, but was told by vice president Christine Lubrano, “wacky things are said in the writer’s room all the time!”
Ultimately, the WWE fired Abrahams in April of 2022, which she claims was due to her objections to the numerous racist scripts and storylines that her employers proposed. The WWE told her that she was fired for taking a Wrestlemania 38 chair, apparently a common practice among writers to keep as a memento of the event, though none of the white writers who took chairs were fired for such behavior, Abrahams claims.
The WWE is notorious for pushing certain stereotypes in order to get a rise out of fans, and although that may become a part of the WWE’s defense, it probably won’t help their cause — especially when it involves allegedly firing a writer for apparently objecting to those ideas, as well as the questionable assumption that such storylines — even for entertainment purposes only — are remotely acceptable.