WWE Legal
McMahon takes stand in sexual harassment
suit against WWE
September 19, 7:48 PM ET
By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Amid testimony of rubberized crowbars and "gimmicked" guitars, wrestling impresario Vince McMahon provided a verbal smackdown Thursday to a female bodybuilder who claims she was sexually harassed while wrestling for his company.
"You're just trying to throw dirt against the wall, trying to make something stick," said McMahon, 57, chairman of the board for World Wrestling Entertainment. McMahon later called the lawsuit "a smear" against his company.
McMahon was questioned for more than two hours by the attorney for 6-foot-2, 230-pound Nicole Bass, a plaintiff who can bench press 315 pounds. Bass alleged that while working for the WWE in 1999, she was subjected to numerous sexual "indignities."
McMahon denied knowledge of any sexual harassment of Bass. The WWE had hoped to turn the bodybuilder into a star, but fired her after five months because she had "two left feet," McMahon said.
"She just didn't have the coordination to develop her skills," McMahon testified. "In our business, she was not a world class athlete."
Outside the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, McMahon signed autographs and posed for pictures with a pair of wrestling fans. "You're the man," said supporter Terryl Wilkins, 32, a security guard from Brooklyn.
According to McMahon, the WWE recruited Bass after seeing her on shock jock Howard Stern's television show.
"Nicole has a very unusual look," McMahon said of the heavily muscled Bass, who wore glasses and a business suit in court. "Mostly because of that we were attracted to her."
But it soon became clear that Bass didn't have "the chops" to make it big in professional wrestling, despite the WWE's best efforts, McMahon said.
"Nicole really wanted to be as big a star as she could," McMahon said. "Why `wouldn't we want that? That's the way to make money for everybody."
In her suit, the 38-year-old Bass alleged that a male wrestler had "graphically simulated a sexual act" behind her back; that female wrestlers were accosted by male WWE employees in their locker rooms; and that she was sexually assaulted on an airplane by a WWE executive who once wrestled under the name Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz.
She also alleged that she was smacked with what was supposed to be a "gimmicked" guitar — a prop that should explode upon impact. Instead, Bass claimed, a real guitar was used and she suffered a head wound.
A videotape of the May 23, 1999, incident was played for the jurors — and it ended with a WWE announcer giving play by play as Bass engaged in what he termed "tonsil hockey" with male wrestler Val Venis.
Venis was left with a huge smile, while blood from her injury was visible on Bass.
Book review of Sex, Lies and the WWF
TIGER ALI SINGH SUES WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT (22nd August 2002)
Nicole Bass to go to trial against WWE on September 16th 2002