A new filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland has expanded the negligence claims against WWE, Vince McMahon, and Linda McMahon regarding alleged sexual abuse involving former WWE ring boys.
The amended complaint introduces detailed accusations from three additional plaintiffs, identified as John Does 6, 7, and 8. It includes new allegations of child sexual abuse against former ring announcer Mel Phillips and, separately, against former WWE wrestler and executive Pat Patterson. Phillips passed away in 2012, while Patterson died in 2020.
POST Wrestling’s Brandon Thurston reports that the updated complaint seeks to establish that the ring boys were compensated — even informally — in an effort to demonstrate that WWE and its executives had a legal duty of care toward them. The complaint argues that payment, along with allegations involving supervision and travel arrangements, shows the underage ring crew were not simply volunteers or independent participants, but individuals for whom the WWF bore responsibility.
In response, WWE has contended that the plaintiffs failed to properly assert “successor liability,” the legal principle that would allow a company to be held accountable for the actions of its predecessor. WWE maintains the lawsuit does not sufficiently explain why either WWE or TKO should be liable for conduct allegedly committed by WWF personnel during the 1980s.
WWE also argued that the plaintiffs’ alleged employment by Phillips does not directly implicate the company. “To the contrary, the Complaint alleges that Phillips hired Plaintiffs and that Phillips paid Plaintiffs money for the work he requested,” WWE stated.
From POST Wrestling:
John Doe 6, a Mississippi resident, alleges that he met Phillips around 1988, when he was 11 or 12 years old. After a WWF house show on July 14, 1989, he was told he needed to stay in Patterson’s hotel room while other underage ring boys stayed in Phillips’ room. In Patterson’s room, Doe 6 alleges he was given alcohol, Patterson played pornography on the television, and forced Doe 6 to give Patterson oral sex and vice versa.
In a separate alleged incident, in a WWF dressing room in Maine, Doe 6 claims he was grabbed in the crotch by wrestler Koko B. Ware with many other witnesses present, including Phillips, Patterson, ring crew member and later ring announcer Tony Chimel, and referee Danny Davis.
“In front of everyone else in the room, Koko B. Ware told John Doe 6 to get against wall [sic], pushed John Doe 6’s head against wall [sic], patted him down, and then grabbed John Doe 6’s crotch.”
The updated lawsuit states that most others in the room laughed, except Chimel, who “said something like, ‘don’t do that, let him go.’” Chimel later told Doe 6 that he shouldn’t be on the ring crew and that he should run away, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit identifies several potential witnesses, including former Community Relations Director Sue Aitchison, who worked for the company for decades until her departure last year. According to the complaint, John Doe 6 alleges that during another WWF event, he was wrestling in the ring when Shane McMahon, then also a teenager, accidentally suffered an arm injury. The incident was allegedly witnessed by Aitchison, eventual WWE referee Mike Chioda, and Chimel.
John Doe 6 alleges he traveled with Phillips to approximately 10 WWE events between 1988 and 1992, including WrestleMania V in Atlantic City on April 2, 1989. The amended complaint includes photographs that purportedly show Doe 6 in the audience during the event’s main event between Hulk Hogan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage. The faces of Doe 6 and other plaintiffs are redacted in the images to protect their identities.
Doe 6 also alleges Phillips sexually abused him after a July 21, 1992, WWF event in Portland, Maine.
Another new plaintiff, identified as John Doe 7, states he was around 14 or 15 years old when he met Mel Phillips in Philadelphia in 1974, the earliest of the meetings with Phillips alleged by the plaintiffs in this lawsuit.
Doe 7 alleges he was sexually abused by Phillips in the course of working as a ring boy at WWF events, including at hotel rooms in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was given alcohol by Phillips. The lawsuit states in detail how Doe 7 was allegedly sexually abused by Phillips, which includes allegations of forced oral sex.
Each of the five initial plaintiffs alleged they were sexually abused by Phillips when they were minors.
The lawsuit acknowledges that Vince McMahon was a commentator at the time Doe 7 was allegedly abused. Vincent J. McMahon was still in charge of the wrestling company at the time. Nonetheless, it’s alleged that the younger McMahon still had leadership responsibilities.
The younger Vince McMahon “acted and was treated by others as the de facto WWE boss, especially when on-site for WWE shows,” the plaintiffs’ attorney stated.
Doe 7 also claims he was abused by Phillips away from WWF events, at the Philadelphia Police Athletic League, and a church in West Philadelphia. Phillips sometimes recorded the abuse with a video camera, according to the filing.
The third new plaintiff, John Doe 8, claims he met Phillips when he was around 15 years old in 1982 in Baltimore while working concessions at the Baltimore Civic Center.
Doe 8, who is now a citizen of Nevada, claims Phillips asked him to come to a WWF show on or around March 13, 1982. At that event, Doe 8 and another ring boy were allegedly given marijuana.
Before another WWF event in Baltimore on April 10, 1982, Doe 8 alleges Phillips sexually abused him and another underage ring boy at a hotel. In Phillips’ room, Doe 8 alleges the ring announcer told the boys to get undressed. While wearing only underwear, Phillips allegedly put the boys’ “feet on his penis to compare sizes. Phillips was aroused.” The boys were also allegedly offered cocaine and pills by Phillips.
