The Heartbreaking Affidavit from Ashley Massaro's Involvement in the Suit Against WWE

Massaro got a raw deal from WWE, especially when they went to Kuwait
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Ashley Massaro's death was ruled a suicide, a bit of information that isn't exactly surprising given how many people, wrestlers, football players, or otherwise, afflicted with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) befall the same fate. Although it is not surprising, it is devastating to see yet another person cut down far too early due to the effects of brain injuries to which people like Vince McMahon only pay lip service. Of course, Massaro's CTE isn't the only thing McMahon turned a blind eye to. Her sworn affidavit surrounding her involvement in the class action suit against WWE was released on Reddit and Twitter over the last few days, and it paints a harrowing picture if what she says in them is true (hint, I would say it's 99.9999999999999999999999 percent likely to be true).

EXTREME CONTENT WARNING here as it is a dictation of Massaro graphically recounting her violent assault in Kuwait, but you can read it for yourself here. The quick and filthy recap is that Massaro felt what she thought was menstrual cramps while in the Kuwait stop on her WWE goodwill tour along with Ron Simmons, Maria Kanellis, Jimmy Hart, and Gary Hart. The military personnel insisted that she was just dehydrated, so they took her to a facility where a man claiming to be a doctor came in with an IV, but that IV was not for dehydration. The drug in it left Massaro paralyzed, and the faux-doctor took his liberties.

Afterwards, she confided in her coworkers and asked them not to tell anyone else that it happened, but someone obviously spilled the beans, as her ticket back to the states was "mysteriously" disappeared, and when she got back, the WWE doctor knew about what happened to her. To make things worse, the doctor then told McMahon, and then the chairman turned around and told Massaro to keep things quiet because "the incident would ruin the relationship between WWE and the US Military" and that "one bad incident" shouldn't jeopardize the work WWE was doing. Massaro would also allege that WWE did not train its workers properly to deal with head trauma and that much like with her assault, McMahon just did not care.

So Massaro was holding a lot of internalized trauma at the time of her death. What she went through in WWE in addition to the magnifying effects of CTE on the mental health of those afflicted makes her story a tragedy. Massaro appears to have forgiven WWE or at least compartmentalized the bad with the good opportunities she thought the company gave her. In my opinion, it far from excuses WWE in its role in her decision to apparently take her own life. I am not an expert in the human psyche, but I do know that sometimes, regretful people oftentimes take blame in situations to make amends, even when they do not deserve said blame. The fact is, Massaro is not living on this earth anymore in large part to the indifference WWE showed to her suffering. McMahon, his daughter, Kevin Dunn, Paul Levesque, and anyone else in power then or now can do all the whitewashing they want, but it doesn't bring Massaro back.