A judge has dismissed the lawsuit filed against several WWE employees by former WWE creative writer Britney Abrahams.
As noted earlier this year, Abrahams filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on April 24, accusing WWE of releasing her after she objected to multiple instances of “offensively racist and stereotypical jargon” used in scripts for WWE segments. Abrahams, a black female, alleged that her multiple complaints were ignored. The suit named several defendants in addition to WWE as a company – WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, former WWE Co-CEO & Chairwoman Stephanie McMahon, current Senior Vice President of Creative Writing Operations Christine Lubrano, former WWE SmackDown Lead Writer and current SmackDown Vice President Ryan Callahan, current Senior Writer/Producer Jennifer Pepperman, former writer Mike Heller, and former writer Chris Dunn. You can find specific details on Abrahams’ complaints below.
In an update, Abrahams filed a motion today to ask the court to dismiss her lawsuit against just the individual defendants listed above. Judge Frederic Block later signed an order to officially dismiss the suit.
There’s no word yet on why Abrahams asked for the suit to be dismissed. She asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed without prejudice, meaning she could bring the suit back up legally in the future, in the same court, if she wants.
It’s interesting to note that WWE as a company is not a part of the dismissal. Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics points to how the suit has been dismissed against the named defendants, without prejudice, but today’s filing does not indicate the suit has been dropped against WWE.
It was noted in the original suit that Abrahams was looking to return to WWE. Her suit asked for “reinstatement, damages, declaratory judgment, and an injunction restraining defendants from engaging in such unlawful conduct.”
The motion filed today reads like this:
“Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(i), Plaintiff Britney Abrahams, by and through her attorneys, THE COCHRAN FIRM, hereby gives notice that the above captioned action is voluntarily discontinued without prejudice as to all claims and causes of action against defendants CHRIS DUNN, individually, RYAN CALLAHAN, individually, JENIFFER PEPPERMAN, individually, CHRISTINE LUBRANO, individually, MIKE HELLER, individually, VINCE MCMAHON, individually, STEPHANIE MCMAHON, individually, with each party bearing that party’s own attorney’s fees and costs. Dismissal is proper under this section because the Defendants have not yet answered the complaint in this matter.”
The original lawsuit mentioned segments that Abrahams objected to with Superstars such as Bianca Belair, Apollo Crews, Mansoor, Shane Thorne, and Reggie/Scrypts.
Abrahams, who began writing for RAW and SmackDown in 2020, said she raised concern with Crews using a “stereotypical and exaggerate Nigerian accent.” Regarding Belair, Abrahams said she objected to a segment where Belair was scripted to say, “Uh-Oh! Don’t make me take off my earrings and beat your ass!”
Abrahams said she sent an e-mail to Callahan regarding the Belair segment, and wrote, “I know I’m new, I’m not trying to be disrespectful or step on [Executive Producer & Chief of Global Television Distribution Kevin Dunn]’s or anyone’s toes, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that [Ms. Belair]’s scene includes racial jargon and offensive stereotypes, particularly her go-home line.”
The suit claimed Belair also objected to the earrings line as she allegedly wrote to Dunn, “3 DIFFERENT TIMES THAT I DON’T WANT TO SAY THAT LINE! BUT HE NEVER LISTENS TO ME! HE PUTS THAT LINE IN EVERY WEEK.”
Belair allegedly said the earrings line would have made her sound “ghetto.”
After voicing concerns over the segments with Belair and Crews, Abrahams alleged that she continued to be subjected to racist pitches on a WWE Slack thread, which Vince, Stephanie and other writers were included on. It was alleged that one storyline pitch involved Reggie/Scrypts dressing in drag, but it was scrapped only when a White writer objected, stating, the idea would “perpetuate harmful stereotypes that would offend viewers.” If the storyline would have moved forward, Reggie, while in drag, would have teamed up with Carmella, who he worked with anyway.
Shane Thorne (aka Slapjack) was involved in another pitch mentioned in the suit. Abrahams alleged that Thorne, who is from Australia, would have worked a “crocodile hunter” gimmick and then he would hunt Reggie “for fun.” The suit noted, “In a nutshell, the said hunting gimmick pitch for new wrestlers, Shane Thorne, and Reggie was, ‘since Shane is Australian, we should make him a crocodile hunter, and instead of crocodiles, he hunts people.’ Holding Reggie captive in cages was also discussed.”
Abrahams also alleged that Callahan pitched a storyline where Mansoor would have been revealed as the person “behind the 9/11 attacks.” Abrahams said she and other writers voiced concerns over this idea to Lubrano, but she allegedly wrote back, “Wacky things are said in the writer’s room all the time!” and “I know but look at the waves we’re making in the company. Four years ago, no woman worked on the writer’s team!”
Abrahams also made several allegations against Pepperman, including that she “discriminatory treated Plaintiff and other black, and African American WWE employees poorly compared to their similarly-situated white, and Caucasian counterparts.”
Abrahams alleged that after she raised these concerns and was repeatedly ignored or rebuffed, company officials “pretextually terminated” her for taking home a commemorative WrestleMania 38 chair in April 2022, but her lawyer argued that this was common practice, that Abrahams was told it would be OK to take the chair, and that White male writers were not punished for the same offense.
Abrahams was being represented by The Cochran Firm. They did not respond to a request for comment on today’s dismissal from Wrestlenomics.
Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more.
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