"Highly offensive" storyline pitched by WWE writer for black wrestler to be regularly beaten up and put in a cage emerges from lawsuit
WWE has never had the cleanest slate when it comes to dealing with the sensitive treatment of wrestlers and issues. A lawsuit has now exposed "highly offensive" plans that writer Ryan Callahan pitched for Shane Thorne and Reggie.
Former WWE writer Britney Abrahams has filed a lawsuit against WWE, Vince McMahon, and several other executives in federal court. Shane Thorne, later named Slapjack in WWE, was initially pitched for a story with Reggie.
According to the court documents surrounding the lawsuit, the details for the storyline are as follows:
Callahan proposed giving Shane Thorne a hunting gimmick, saying, “Since Shane is Australian, we should make him a crocodile hunter, and instead of crocodiles, he hunts people.”
On top of that, the story that was pitched for him was that he would "capture Reggie and constantly beat him up" but that Reggie would always escape despite being captured. There was also talk about holding him "captive in cages."
Lawsuit also states more daunting details:
Around spring of 2021 Ryan Callahan pitched that a white Caucasian male wrestler with a “hunting” gimmick would hunt a black, male wrestler for fun.
In a nutshell, the said hunting gimmick pitch for new wrestlers, Shane Thorne and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… https://t.co/EccF3vXkee
Britney found the pitch to be "highly offensive and objectionable." She objected to his "racially motivated misconduct."
She said that a white man hunting a black African American man for sport was racist, to which Callahan responded by laughing and saying, “OH, WHAT? IS THAT A BAD THING?”
@WrestleOps That explains this
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The situation put her in a spot where she was humiliated and intimidated, making her work environment worse. These were only a few among many other accusations.
What do you think of the lawsuit and claims about the story? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.