In an article written by Abraham Riesman, a former WWE wrestler corroborated WWE’s first female referee Rita Chatterton’s sexual assault accusations against Vince McMahon.
Chatterton was WWE’s first-ever female referee. She spoke to writer Abraham Riesman, but did not want to go into details about what allegedly took place in a limo back in July 1986 at night. This was Chatterton’s first interview since 1992.
In that 1992 appearance on Geraldo Rivera’s daytime talk show, Chatterton had accused McMahon of raping her in a limo in 1986. However, due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, no charges could be brought against McMahon.
The first wrestler, Mario Mancini (Leonard Inzitari) spoke on the record and corroborated the story. He chose to speak with Riesman after all this time due the WWE Board of Directors investigation of McMahon’s allegations of misconduct.
The article notes that Mancini and Chatterton have known each other since the early 1980’s. They trained together at a wrestling school. Mancini claims that Chatterton took him aside before a WWF house show in 1986 and that she bursted into tears, describing exactly took place inside the limo which included McMahon forcing her to perform oral sex before pulling her on top of him for sex.
Chatterton said that she had wanted to talk to McMahon about her future in WWE, which included full-time employment. After McMahon said he did not want to discuss it at a large dinner she and others were at, he suggested they go to a diner and discuss things privately. While outside getting into her car, she said she saw McMahon in his limo and he suggested they talk there, as he was tired. It was noted the limo driver was not present at the time.
The article states McMahon allegedly said in order for Chatterton to get a $500,000 per year deal, she would have to “satisfy him.” It was at this point when McMahon allegedly forced her to perform the sexual acts, or else be blackballed from the industry.
The WWF – at the time declined to comment on the allegations citing that they were dealing with several other of their well-documented scandals. However, Vince and Linda McMahon sued Chatterton, Rivera, several production people, and former wrestler David Shults, as the McMahon’s claimed they were all part of a conspiracy against them. The suit was eventually dropped.
The entire long-form article can be read at The New York Intelligencer