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Former WWE writer Britney Abrahams filed a 31-page lawsuit yesterday in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York against WWE, Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and other WWE executives, alleging that she was discriminated against and fired for objecting to "offensively racist and stereotypical jargon" in scripts for black performers. Abrahams, who was let go from the company two years ago, claims that her complaints were ignored and then she was let go from the company for taking home a commemorative Wrestlemania 37 chair, which she insinuates was a cover for the real reason for her termination.
Beyond WWE and the McMahon family members, other defendants include Christine Lubrano (SVP, Creative Writing Operations at WWE), former WWE Creative Team member Chris Dunn, Ryan Callahan (a high-up exec on the Smackdown brand creative end who is now VP of Smackdown), creative team member Jen Pepperman, and Mike Heller, another former WWE Creative Team member who exited the company last year.
Abrahams "asserts that Defendants engaged and continue to engage in a pattern and practice of discrimination against black female employees, African American female employees, and employees who engage in protected conduct on behalf of themselves and other minority employees."
Abrahams' complaint states that she was hired as a temporary employee writer for WWE Smackdown on 11/3/20 and after her work was well received by executives in the company, she was offered a full-time position in May 2021.
In the lawsuit, Abrahams noted that it was suggested by Bruce Prichard that she write vignettes for both Raw and Smackdown. She began shadowing Chris Dunn (who is white), who was writing vignettes for Bianca Belair:
"The said scene included offensively racist and stereotypical jargon which Plaintiff found objectionable.
By way of example, according to the script, DUNN intended Ms. Belair, the said black female WWE wrestler, to say, “Uh-Uh! Don't make me take off my earrings and beat your ass!” which are lines based upon cruel, ugly stereotypes of dark-skinned, black women.
Plaintiff asserts that Ms. Belair uttering that line was, and still is, negatively stereotypical of race and gender, and Plaintiff found it offensive, and still finds it offensive.
Prior to the writing of this scene many of the WWE writers commonly complained that they didn’t know what to do with Ms. Belair.
As a result, Plaintiff undertook researching Ms. Belair’s background, and discovered a fascinating family tree, including an aunt who helped desegregate her high school in the 1960s, and an uncle whose contributions to science were world-renowned.
DUNN allowed Plaintiff to write a first draft of Ms. Belair’s scene, so Plaintiff included positive references to Ms. Belair’s rich family history and sent it to DUNN for feedback.
DUNN told Plaintiff that the draft “looks great. I’m going to make some edits and submit it to [CALLAHAN].”
However, DUNN subjected Plaintiff’s draft to substantial editing, including inserting the said racial Case. That same night, Plaintiff complained about the racially offensive and discriminatory nature of the scene to one of her WWE superiors, Defendant CALLAHAN.
Plaintiff emailed CALLAHAN and said, “I know I’m new, I’m not trying to be disrespectful or step on [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.”
Plaintiff also requested clarification for protocol on moving forward with her complaint.
In conversation with Ms. Belair the following day, Ms. Belair informed Plaintiff that she told 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.”
Ms. Belair said the script’s discriminatory line(s) made her look “ghetto.”
Plaintiff relayed this information to DUNN and politely offered to edit the line(s).
However, despite Plaintiff’s complaint, Defendants failed and/or refused to take any immediate or appropriate corrective action in response.
Plaintiff never received any form of response from CALLAHAN, verbally nor via email, and CALLAHAN never spoke to Plaintiff about her email or the line(s), or the scene.
Additionally, WWE’s failure and/or refusal to address Plaintiff’s complaint emboldened WWE employees, including DUNN and CALLAHAN, to further discriminate against and to retaliate against Plaintiff in response to her protected conduct.
By way of example, WWE kept the discriminatory line in the script. Plaintiff was scheduled to shadow DUNN on two (2) scenes that day, one of which was the said scene with Ms. Belair.
However, around halfway through the day, DUNN informed Plaintiff that she would now shadow CALLAHAN.
When Plaintiff requested DUNN’s assistance, he told Plaintiff “YOU HANDLE IT. IT’S YOUR SCENE NOW.”
CALLAHAN showed up for the taping of Plaintiff’s scenes about 90 seconds before they went live, and he never once mentioned Plaintiff’s email.
Defendants switched Plaintiff’s assignment and made her shadow WWE’s lead writer, who was not present until the show filmed live.
The switch in assignment was due to Plaintiff’s race, and gender and had the purpose and effect of sabotaging Plaintiff’s career with the WWE, and to serve as a pretext for retaliatory adverse actions.
Defendants did not provide Plaintiff with any training on what needed to be done during the live broadcast.
Defendants’ actions were clearly discriminatory as similarly situated white, male WWE employees are not treated in this manner.
Defendants’ actions in this regard were clearly retaliatory, given the temporal proximity between Plaintiff’s protected conduct and WWE’s adverse employment actions.
Defendants’ actions in this regard were done to humiliate, intimidate and undermine the Plaintiff’s performance as she had never been tasked with this responsibility and had no idea of the new role’s requirements."
Abrahams alleges that "following Plaintiff’s complaint, Defendants increased the intensity of their discriminatory misconduct, including deliberately subjecting Plaintiff to a number of racist pitches.
One of those alleged racist pitches involved WWE performer Reggie (now WWE NXT's SCRYPTS) with the idea that he would dress in complete drag "with wig and tights" to partner with Carmella in matches against other female tag team partners. She noted that Vince and Stephanie McMahon as well as WWE's Ed Koskey were in a Slack app thread about the pitch and it wasn't until a white creative team member, Andrea Listenberger, pointed out the negative nature of the idea, "observing that putting a straight black man in drag might perpetuate harmful stereotypes that would offend viewers" that WWE dropped the "discriminatory pitch."
It should be noted that the pitch would not have been the first WWE character in drag featured in modern times as Santino Marella played his "sister" Santina for a period of time on WWE programming, and obviously before that would have been Jimmy Shoulders as Cloudy in the 1990s and the late Adrian Adonis before that in the 1980s.
Abrahams' complaint also alleged that "By way of another example, WWE forced wrestler Apollo Crews to speak with a Nigerian accent, just because of his Nigerian lineage. Apollo Crews is a black, Nigerian-born male." Abrahams claimed that she emailed Ryan Callahan "and complained about the offensive nature of the requirement for Apollo Crews to speak with a stereotypical and exaggerated Nigerian accent" but he "failed and/or refused to take corrective action", which required Abrahams to be forced to "to require Apollo Crews to speak with a racially artificial Nigerian accent."
Abrahams also alleges that in 2021, Callahan pitched a gimmick for Australian talent Shane Thorne described as a "Caucasian male wrestler with a “hunting” gimmick would hunt a black, male wrestler for fun" with the idea of playing off Crocodile Hunter but "instead of crocodiles, he hunts people.” The lawsuit claims, "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."
The lawsuit alleges:
"Holding Reggie captive in cages was also discussed.
Plaintiff 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. 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."
Abrahams also alleges that senior WWE writer Jen Pepperman, who is white, "discriminatorily treated Plaintiff and other black, and African American WW employees poorly compared to their similarly-situated white, and Caucasian counterparts." The complaint alleged Pepperman would "just snap" at Abrahams and other African-Americans, "deliberately berate them in front of everyone else", that Pepperman had "zero patience" for Abrahams and others and that her "tone and countenance routinely differed from when she spoke to or engaged with Plaintiff’s white, Caucasian counterparts."
The lawsuit claimed "Pepperman's comments and conduct had the purpose and effect of humiliating and intimidating Plaintiff, and their severity and pervasiveness dramatically altered Plaintiff’s work environment for the worse."
Abrahams also alleges that a Black female writer's assistant was fired in November 2021 after reporting Ryan Callahan for "for creating a racially hostile environment against African American employees." After that assistant was fired, Abrahams states the company questioned her about her experiences with Callahan and whether she had witnessed or been the victim of harassment on the creative writing team. She states in the lawsuit that she described "the discrimination and hostile work environment she had been subjected to" by Pepperman, as well as what she had witnessed Pepperman allegedly do to other "minority employees."
The lawsuit also noted:
"At a different time, Plaintiff received a call from WWE Human Resources representatives. They said, “It was brought to our attention that you called some pitches racist, and I want to know if it was directed at you or a part of direction for a storyline?"
Plaintiff told them it was for a storyline but that it came from WWE lead writer CALLAHAN, so it really shouldn't have been said once, let alone twice, no matter serious or in jest. Plaintiff told them it was an offensive “joke.”
However, WWE Human Resources kept repeating, “but was it said about you?”
WWE never agreed that it shouldn't have been said at all by someone of authority.
WWE also never asked if Plaintiff was okay after hearing those racist and sexist pitches. "
Abrahams' lawsuit also goes into great detail into the alleged conduct of Callahan during a storyline pitch for a love triangle between Mansoor, Aliyah and Angel Garza, a storyline that never came to be on WWE programming:
"In or around November 2021 a WWE writer, Mr. Zach Hyatt (“Mr. Hyatt”) admitted to Plaintiff and another black, female WWE writer, Ms. Sylvers that he was “afraid to critique his group of Black wrestlers.”
Plaintiff and Ms. Sylvers spoke to the black performers directly, who expressed feeling “unheard and misunderstood culturally” and who thanked Plaintiff and Ms. Sylvers for their compassionate approach to writing for black, and other minority characters.
Shortly thereafter, Plaintiff and Ms. Sylvers proceeded to share this information with their WWE lead writers.
Plaintiff asserts that Defendants engaged and continue to engage in a pattern and practice of discrimination against black female employees, African American female employees, and other minority employees.
By way of example, in or around late November 2021 racially discriminatory comments were casually made by Plaintiff’s white, male Caucasian lead writer CALLAHAN about a Muslim wrestler.
Ms. Sylvers and Plaintiff, the only black writers on the team, at the time, were tasked to pitch a love storyline between wrestlers Aaliyah, Mansoor, and Angel Garza, who are both Muslim).
Ms. Sylvers and Plaintiff pitched that Mansoor has a secret that he’s keeping from Aaliyah.
CALLAHAN disagreed with the secret Ms. Sylvers and Plaintiff wanted for the character.
Instead, CALLAHAN suggested, “how about his secret is he's behind the 9/11 attacks?”
Ms. Sylvers nervously laughed and said, “let's not do that. Let's talk about the other part of the pitch.”
CALLAHAN said, “Oh, I guess you're the lead writer now.”
Ms. Sylvers again laughed nervously, and said, “for just this moment so we can talk about something else.”
Following this, whenever a writer asked CALLAHAN a question, he would reply, “ask [Ms. Sylvers], she’s the lead writer now.”
CALLAHAN’s comments and conduct in this regard were clearly discriminatory given Plaintiff’s similarly situated white, Caucasian counterparts were not treated in this manner.
Additionally, HELLER shared a sexist pitch for a Muslim female wrestler wherein the said female wrestler lacked authority over her own mind and body.
Again, Ms. Sylvers and Plaintiff created a love storyline between wrestlers, Aaliyah, Mansoor, and Angel Garza.
In this pitch, Aaliyah and Mansoor were meant to fall in love, while a jealous Angel tries to break them up. The pitch made Aaliyah appear intelligent and confident in herself and desires, containing Aaliyah speaking up for herself against both Angel and Mansoor, and having her love and affection earned.
Ms. Sylvers and Plaintiff pitched this storyline to HELLER, who expressed confusion about Aaliyah and her choices, particularly her never wanting to be with Angel, who is the obvious villain in the story. HELLER was also confused that Aaliyah wasn't “crying on the stairs after her breakup with Mansoor.”
HELLER then counter-pitched that Plaintiff make the storyline a love triangle objectifying and bimbofying Aaliyah. HELLER’s sexist counter-pitch included Angel being forward and aggressive in his efforts to date Aaliyah, Aaliyah being easily swayed by Angel’s evil tactics, and Aaliyah being confused about which guy she should date, oscillating between the two men until the end of the storyline.
HELLER and CALLAHAN made these discriminatory comments while Plaintiff and other female black, African American employees were in his presence in the writer’s room.
HELLER’s and CALLAHAN’s comments and conduct were clearly discriminatory.
Plaintiff immediately complained about these racially discriminatory comments.
Plaintiff spoke up and asked, “Doesn’t that take away Aaliyah’s agency?”
Plaintiff told HELLER that she wanted to make a pitch that was “more feminist, especially because Aaliyah’s character is already marketed as being ‘super-hot.’”
Plaintiff along with a number of her co-workers, including Ms. Sylvers and Mr. Barbash also complained about the discriminatory nature of their lead writers’ comments.
Rather, in response to Plaintiff’s protected conduct, Defendants intensified their campaign of retaliatory adverse employment actions.
By way of example, LUBRANO met with Plaintiff and Ms. Sylvers and deliberately downplayed HELLER’s and CALLAHAN’s discriminatory remarks by claiming that she “heard it was a joke. And wacky things are said in the writer's room all the time!"
When Plaintiff indicated that, “it doesn't make it okay,” LUBRANO responded, “I know but look at the waves we're making in the company. 4 years ago, no woman worked on the writer’s team!”
LUBRANO followed up and told Plaintiff she was doing a great job and that “[Pritchard], [MR. MCMAHON], and [MS. MCMAHON] love [Plaintiff’s] writing. But [Plaintiff] should be careful to pick and choose [Plaintiff’s] battles.”
However, despite Plaintiff’s complaints, Defendants refused to take any immediate and/or appropriate corrective action in response."
Abrahams alleges she was fired by the company for taking a commemorative WWE Wrestlemania 37 chair home from Tampa, Florida and that in the years before she made her complains, "WWE did not subject employees to disciplinary action in response to taking the removable, temporary seating, limited edition WrestleMania branded chairs, from the WrestleMania events."
Abrahams' version of events is that another writer asked Ryan Callahan if the writers could "each help themselves" to a chair. Pepperman told the writer's room that they could indeed do that but they had to wait until after the show to take it. It was even noted that employees could ask the company's production team to ship the chair home for them.
Numerous writers, including Abrahams, took chairs but "In or around the early hours of next morning, Plaintiff’s supervisor emailed the writing team instructing people to return the WrestleMania 38 branded chairs and demanding why they thought taking the WrestleMania branded chairs was a “wise choice."
Abrahams was terminated on 4/7/22, alleging that "in retaliation for engaging in protected conduct Defendants unlawfully and pretextually terminated Plaintiff’s employment."
She is alleging she was targeted for termination with the taking of the chair being the excuse used, but she was actually fired for voicing her concerns, stating in the lawsuit:
"It is clear that despite Plaintiff’s excellent work performance, Defendants actually terminated her employment based on her complaints about Defendants’ racial discrimination and due to her race and gender.
While Plaintiff’s employment with WWE was a harrowing, traumatic experience, the events complained of herein do not reflect a unique incident, as rudimentary internet research paints a similarly distressing picture of discriminatory abuse and misconduct by WWE and those occupying the most powerful positions within WWE.
The totality of these acts demonstrates a pattern of discrimination intentionally perpetrated by the WWE management and executive officers against Plaintiff.
For a considerable period following her termination Plaintiff was unable to locate permanent work due to Defendants’ discrimination and defamatory statements regarding her work performance.
Upon information and belief, Defendants devised, implemented, and executed a scheme through which they gave disparate, preferential treatment and superior benefits to male and white, Caucasian employees, while knowingly and intentionally denying equal treatment and benefits to female and black, African American employees, including Plaintiff.
Defendants discriminated against and terminated Plaintiff on the basis of her race, color, gender and because Plaintiff complained about and/or opposed the unlawful conduct of Defendants related to the above protected classes."
Abrahams is seeking:
"A declaratory judgment that the actions, conduct and practices of Defendants complained of herein violate the laws of the State of New York, and the City of New York;
An injunction and order permanently restraining Defendants from engaging in such unlawful conduct;
An award of damages in an amount to be determined at trial, but in any event in excess of the jurisdictional limit of any other court which might otherwise have jurisdiction over this matter, plus prejudgment interest, to compensate Plaintiffs for all monetary and/or economic damages, including but not limited to, the loss of past and future income, wages, compensation, seniority, and other benefits of employment;
An award of damages in an amount to be determined at trial, but in any event in excess of the jurisdictional limit of any other court which might otherwise have jurisdiction over this matter, plus prejudgment interest, to compensate Plaintiff for all non-monetary and/or compensatory damages, including but not limited to, compensation for their severe mental anguish and emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, stress and anxiety, loss of self-esteem, self-confidence and personal dignity, emotional pain and suffering and other physical and mental injuries;
An award of damages for any and all other monetary and/or non-monetary losses suffered by Plaintiffs in an amount to be determined at trial, but in any event in excess of the jurisdictional limit of any other court which might otherwise have jurisdiction over this matter, plus prejudgment interest;
An award of punitive damages, in an amount to be determined at trial, but in any event in excess of the jurisdictional limit of any other court which might otherwise have jurisdiction over this matter;
An award of costs that Plaintiffs have incurred in this action, as well as Plaintiffs reasonable attorneys’ fees to the fullest extent permitted by law; and H. Such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and proper."
As of this writing, none of the defendants have been served with the lawsuit.
PWInsider.com has reached out to WWE for comment, although the company does not routinely comment on legal matters.
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