More Details On Pitches Referenced In WWE Lawsuit Over ‘Racist’ Storylines

WWE has been sued by a former writer over allegations of racist storyline pitches, and a new report has new details on the pitches. As reported on Wednesday, former writer Britney Abrahams filed a suit against Vince McMahon and WWE alleging that WWE retaliated against her for speaking out against “offensively racist and stereotypical jargon” used in scripts for stars like Bianca Belair and Apollo Crews. Fightful Select had learned more about some of the pitches that were named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit notes that writer Ryan Callahan made a pitch that Mansoor would be “keeping a secret that he was behind 9/11.” The report notes that Mansoor and Callahan had a good relationship in the past and that talent were “shocked and baffled” that this was even something said. Callahan had been released by WWE in 2019 over a disagreement with Dave Kapoor and worked his way to the top of the Smackdown writing team after he returned. Those in the know said that the pitch was not serious and was a joke told in poor taste, and it hadn’t even gotten back to Mansoor before the news of it broke.

Fightful also notes that the pitch made to Mustafa Ali by Vince McMahon in late 2021 that Ali “never would have done” was something that was “just as bad” as the Mansoor pitch, though details on exactly what it was remain elusive.

The lawsuit also mentioned Apollo Crews’ Nigerian accent, though that was originally pitched by an active wrestler according to the report.

The lawsuit notes that Callahan pitched a storyline in which Reggie would be “captive in cages” and was being hunted by Shane Haste. The pitch would allegedly have seen Haste hunt Reggie for fun, noting that the pitch 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.”

Abrahams said that she had objected and pointed out that a white man hunting an African-American for sport would be racist and Callahan “laughed and sarcastically responded, ‘Oh, what? Is that a bad thing?’ Fightful reached out to Haste about it and Hatse said he couldn’t speak to the elevator pitch to Vince, but said the version he heard wasn’t about race and instead was about the 24/7 scene, with Reggie escaping most of the traps via acrobatics.

WWE is said to have no plans to commenting on the lawsuit or any other legal matters moving forward.