Backstage News On Pitches Referenced In WWE Lawsuit Over ‘Racist’ Storylines
It was previously reported here on eWn that former writer Britney Abrahams has sued Vince McMahon and WWE on grounds of the company retaliating against her for speaking out against “offensively racist and stereotypical jargon” used in scripts for Bianca Belair and Apollo Crews.
Fightful Select has now revealed additional details about some of the pitches that were named in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states that writer Ryan Callahan made a pitch that Mansoor would be “keeping a secret that he was behind 9/11.”
Mansoor and Callahan shared a good relationship in the past and that talents were “shocked and baffled” that this was even considered. Callahan was released by WWE in 2019 over a disagreement with Dave Kapoor and ground his way to the top of the SmackDown creative team following his return.
The pitch was allegedly not serious and simply a joke told in poor taste, and it hadn’t even reached Mansoor before making headlines.
Additionally, the pitch made to Mustafa Ali by Vince McMahon in late 2021 that Ali “never would have done” was “just as bad” as the Mansoor pitch, though intricate details remain elusive.
The lawsuit also mentions Apollo Crews’ Nigerian accent, though that was originally pitched by an active Superstar as per the report.
The lawsuit further notes that Callahan pitched a storyline in which Reggie would be “captive in cages” with Shane Haste hunting him. The pitch would allegedly have seen Haste hunt Reggie for fun, noting the idea was “since Shane is Australian, we should make him a crocodile hunter, and instead of crocodiles, he hunts people.”
Haste would then “capture Reggie and constantly beat him up, but Reggie would always escape after being captured.”
Although Abrahams raised objections regarding the racist pitch involving a white man hunting an African-American for sport, WWE turned a deaf ear and Callahan “laughed and sarcastically responded, ‘Oh, what? Is that a bad thing?’”
Fightful reached out to Haste who noted that while he couldn’t speak to Vince regarding the pitch, the version he heard wasn’t about race and instead featured the 24/7 scene, with Reggie evading most of the traps via acrobatics.
WWE reportedly has no plans to comment on the lawsuit or any other legal matters henceforth.
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