Vince McMahon.Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty
The writer, Britney Abrahams, filed a lawsuit against the professional wrestling company and several of its employees in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York last week.
The filing names WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, his daughter and former WWE Chairwoman Stephanie McMahon and five others who work for the wrestling show’s writing staff.
The alleged storylines Abrahams references in the lawsuit dealt with several top WWE stars, including longtime women’s champion Bianca Belair, Apollo Crews and more.
Stephanie McMahon.Brian Ach/Getty
WWE has not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment about the lawsuit.
Abrahams said on one occasion, WWE lead writer Ryan Callahan suggested an idea for a storyline in which a Saudi Arabian-born wrestler would be revealed to have been “behind the 9/11 attacks.”
She also said Callahan presented an idea for an Australian wrestler’s new gimmick to be that he’s a “hunter” who “hunts people,” including the idea of repeatedly capturing a Black wrestler and keeping him captive in a cage.
Abrahams “found Callahan’s pitch highly offensive and objectionable,” according to the lawsuit. The ex-writer “objected to her superior’s racially motivated misconduct, specifically stating that a gimmick where a white man hunting a black African American man for sport is racist,” the lawsuit reads. “Callahan laughed and sarcastically responded, ‘OH, WHAT? IS THAT A BAD THING?’ "
The lawsuit alleges that Abrahams also objected to WWE’s writing staff forcing Crews to use a heavy, fake Nigerian accent because of his race.
The filing also says Abrahams raised concern over a line WWE senior writer Chris Dunn wrote for Belair, in which the two-time world champion was asked to say, “Uh-Uh! Don’t make me take off my earrings and beat your ass!” to another wrestler.
“Uttering that line was, and still is, negatively stereotypical of race and gender, and [Abrahams] found it offensive, and still finds it offensive,” the lawsuit says, adding that Belair repeatedly raised concern about the line, as well.
Abrahams worked as a writer for “WWE SmackDown!” and “WWE Monday Night RAW” from November 2020 until April 2022.
The former writer said WWE fired her for taking home a commemorative chair from the promotion’s WrestleMania 38 event, despite other white employees doing the same thing and the company having a “policy of allowing employees to take WrestleMania branded” chairs home with them after the annual event.
source: people.com
