Lawsuit Reveals Disturbing Racist Pitch About Putting People In Cages

WWE is currently facing a lawsuit that calls the company out for racist practices and creative angles. Ex WWE writer Britney Abrahams filed this huge lawsuit, and a lot of information is coming out about the company’s creative department right now.

One distrusting creative pitch within WWE involved Reggie, who now wrestles under the name SCRYPTS in NXT. Shane Thorne, who was released by WWE in November 2021, was also involved.

According to this new lawsuit, Ryan Callahan, who is WWE’s Vice President, Friday Night SmackDown and was lead writer of SmackDown at the time, pitched a very offensive idea. Callahan allegedly pitched that Shane Thorne take on a gimmick of a people hunter, much like the crocodile hunter, but only with humans.

The most disturbing part of this pitch is that Ryan Callahan allegedly wanted Reggie to play the part of Shane Thorne’s prey. This would have possibly even seen Reggie in a cage at one point, which would not have been a good look at all.

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.”

Subsequently, a storyline was pitched by CALLAHAN where Shane would capture Reggie and constantly beat him up, but Reggie would always escape after being captured.

Holding Reggie captive in cages was also discussed.

Plaintiff (Abrahams) found CALLAHAN’s pitch highly offensive and objectionable.

Plaintiff again objected to her superior’s racially motivated misconduct, specifically stating that a gimmick where a white man hunting a black African American man for sport is racist.

CALLAHAN laughed and sarcastically responded, “OH, WHAT? IS THAT A BAD THING?”

CALLAHAN’s comments and conduct had the purpose and effect of humiliating and intimidating Plaintiff, and dramatically altered her work environment for the worse.

As the WWE writing team’s sole person of color, Plaintiff was devastated that none of her white, Caucasian co-workers stepped in to complain about this discriminatory and offensive pitch.

Afterwards, Plaintiff spoke with Mr. (Brian) Parise, a white, Caucasian WWE writer, who revealed that he agreed with Plaintiff that the pitch was racist, but he felt too nervous to speak up about it in front of CALLAHAN.

However, despite Plaintiff’s complaint, Defendants refused to address the complaint and instead continued the discriminatory and retaliatory campaign unabated.

The lawsuit also outlined a very specific instance of a pitch that Ryan Callahan allegedly made. This would have involved having Reggie wear a wig and tights to become Carmella’s tag team partner in a match against another female team.

By way of example, it was discussed in the WWE writer’s Slack channel before a show, that a new wrestler, Reggie, would dress in drag complete with wig and tights, “so he could partner with Carmella, a female wrestler, in a tag-team match against other female wrestlers.”

Reggie is a dark-skinned, African American, black straight male wrestler.

Given this pitch was shared via the Slack app, Defendants MR. MCMAHON (Vince McMahon) and MS. MACHON (Stephanie McMahon), as well as other WWE higher-ups, including Mr. Pritchard (Bruce Prichard), and Mr. Ed Koskey were included on the thread.

Plaintiff’s co-worker, Ms. (Andrea) Listenberger, responded to the thread, observing that putting a straight black man in drag might perpetuate harmful stereotypes that would offend viewers.

WWE eventually scrapped the discriminatory pitch, but only in response to a white, Caucasian individual’s protected conduct in the form of Ms. Listenberger’s complaint.

This is a still-developing story, and there is a lot to unpack here. Obviously, WWE never produced a segment where Reggie was hunted by Shane Thorne, but that creative pitch might come back to bite Ryan Callahan if this lawsuit builds more momentum. If anything, fans are now aware that this idea was floated out there during a creative meeting.

What’s your take on this lawsuit against WWE? Do you think they need to settle out of court? Sound off in the comments!