This past week, a new civil lawsuit was filed by five anonymous clients against Vince and Linda McMahon, WWE, and their parent company TKO related to the "ring boy scandal" that first became known to the public in the '90s, involving underage members of the ring crew being groomed and assaulted. Greg Gutzler, an attorney representing one of the "John Does", joined "Pollock and Thurston" to discuss the case, starting with the 82-page complaint that included photos of the victims.
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"I think that the public at large sometimes like to ignore sexual abuse because quite frankly it's really painful," Gutlzer said. "It's painful to think that you could have a child, or a parent, or a sibling that may have been subjected to these types of things. And you see the photos there, these are children, they were impressionable, vulnerable children who saw (WWE) back in the day as their dream playing out in reality: heel vs. babyface, babyface vs. heel, good vs. bad, America vs. other countries, and they really did the morality arc, and they really knew how to play that story arc."
Gutzler debunked the criticism of the victims having a motive in the lawsuit, stating that the reason for the case is that the truth needs to be told and to be a means of support for other victims of the same nature. "When you get to know these people you will say, 'These are people whose lives were ruined; we need to take this seriously and we hope the WWE will also," Gutzler remarked. This is the third active court case against Vince McMahon, in addition to the U.S. Department of Justice and Janel Grant, with the former currently asserting priority.
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If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Pollock and Thurston" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
