Former WWE ring boy Tom Cole committed suicide this past Friday. He was 50.
Cole worked as a WWE ring boy years ago and had accused ring announcer Mel Phillips and employee Terry Garvin of sexual misconduct and harassment. This was known as the “WWF ring boy scandal” after other men came out with similar accusations.
You can click here to read Cole’s 1999 interview with The Wrestling Perspective, detailing what happened and how he rejected Garvin, who was fired by the company. Cole ended up reaching a settlement out of court with WWE, which included them paying for his education. He would later ask Linda McMahon for his job back, but the company dismissed him and he went on unemployment, which WWE challenged several times, and successfully appealed.
Tom’s brother Lee Cole announced the news of his brother’s passing on Twitter, and called out Linda and Vince McMahon for what happened. You can see his tweets below:
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