Ashley Massaro’s Sexual Assault Claim Before Death Addressed by WWE

WWE fans are still reeling from the unexpected death of Ashley Massaro on May 16. Before her death, which appeared to be a suicide, Massaro was at the center of a class action lawsuit against the organization that was later dismissed.

The suit, in which Massaro’s lawyer alleged she was drugged and sexually assaulted while touring a United States Army base in Kuwait in 2006 according to documents obtained by the New York Post, has resurfaced, forcing the WWE to address it once more. The suit also alleged that she told the WWE executives about what happened to her, and was told to keep quiet.

The WWE initially addressed the allegations when they first came out, and has addressed them once more in a more detailed statement. In its first response to the reports, the organization included an email exchange between WWE heads and Massaro, who claimed lawyer Konstantine Kyros “poached” her, and the legal battle between herself and the WWE”got out of control fast.” In its most recent response, the WWE said it was “saddened by the death of Ashley Massaro” and regretted the Kyros used “Ashley’s death to further his malicious campaign against WWE.”

Kyros reportedly filed multiple cases against the WWE, including Massaro’s. In each case, according to the WWE, Kyros was sanctioned for “misconduct and false allegations.”

“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 the 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,” WWE said, according to Cage Side Seats.

“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,” the statement continued.

Additionally, WWE said McMahon never had a meeting with Kevin Dunn, John Laurinaitis “or other company executives in which [Massaro] told them of such a claim and was instructed to keep quiet.”

The alleged sexual assault outlined in the lawsuit shocked Massaro’s fans, but they were also shocked to learn of some of the injuries and treatments she received during her time in the WWE. In the lawsuit, Massaro said she suffered repeated concussions in the WWE, and as a result, was battling “depression, for which I take medication.” She went on to say that she’d been getting migraine headaches and experienced “severe short-term memory loss.”

“I attribute these issues to my work-related injuries sustained while working for the WWE, and specifically to routine repetitive blows to the head I received in the ring over the course of my care which were not properly diagnosed or treated,” Massaro said at the time.