Former WWE creative writer Britney Abrahams filed a lawsuit against several WWE employees, which was dismissed by a judge.
As PWExclusive.com previously reported, Abrahams filed the lawsuit on April 24 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, accusing WWE of releasing her after she objected to multiple instances of “offensively racist and stereotypical jargon” used in WWE segment scripts. Abrahams, a black woman, claimed that her numerous complaints were dismissed. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, former WWE Co-CEO & Chairwoman Stephanie McMahon, current Senior Vice President of Creative Writing Operations Christine Lubrano, former WWE SmackDown Lead Writer and current SmackDown Vice President Ryan Callahan, current Senior Writer/Producer Jennifer Pepperman, former writer Mike Heller, and former writer Chris Dunn were named as defendants in addition to WWE. Specifics on Abrahams’ complaints can be found below.
In an update, Abrahams filed a motion on Thursday requesting that the court dismiss her lawsuit against only the individuals named above. Judge Frederic Block later signed an order dismissing the case.
There has been no word on why Abrahams requested that the suit be dismissed. She requested that the lawsuit be dismissed without prejudice, which means she could re-file it in the same court in the future if she so desired.
It’s worth noting that the dismissal does not include WWE as a company. According to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, the suit against the named defendants has been dismissed without prejudice, but the new filing does not indicate that the suit against WWE has been dropped.
Abrahams’ desire to return to WWE was mentioned in the original suit. Her complaint sought “reinstatement, damages, declaratory judgment, and an injunction restraining defendants from engaging in such unlawful conduct.”
The motion filed today is as follows:
“Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(i), Plaintiff Britney Abrahams, by and through her attorneys, THE COCHRAN FIRM, hereby gives notice that the above captioned action is voluntarily discontinued without prejudice as to all claims and causes of action against defendants CHRIS DUNN, individually, RYAN CALLAHAN, individually, JENIFFER PEPPERMAN, individually, CHRISTINE LUBRANO, individually, MIKE HELLER, individually, VINCE MCMAHON, individually, STEPHANIE MCMAHON, individually, with each party bearing that party’s own attorney’s fees and costs. Dismissal is proper under this section because the Defendants have not yet answered the complaint in this matter.”
Abrahams objected to segments involving Superstars such as Bianca Belair, Apollo Crews, Mansoor, Shane Thorne, and Reggie/Scrypts in the original lawsuit.
Abrahams, who started writing for RAW and SmackDown in 2020, expressed concern about Crews’ “stereotypical and exaggerated Nigerian accent.” Abrahams said she objected to a segment in which Belair was scripted to say, “Uh-Oh! Don’t make me take off my earrings and beat your ass!”
Abrahams stated in an e-mail to Callahan about the Belair segment, “I know I’m new, I’m not trying to be disrespectful or step on [Executive Producer & Chief of Global Television Distribution Kevin Dunn]’s or anyone’s toes, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that [Ms. Belair]’s scene includes racial jargon and offensive stereotypes, particularly her go-home line.”
According to the lawsuit, Belair also objected to the earrings line, writing to Dunn, “3 DIFFERENT TIMES THAT I DON’T WANT TO SAY THAT LINE! BUT HE NEVER LISTENS TO ME! HE PUTS THAT LINE IN EVERY WEEK.”
According to Belair, the earrings line would have made her sound “ghetto.”
After raising concerns about the segments with Belair and Crews, Abrahams claimed she was subjected to racist comments on a WWE Slack thread that included Vince, Stephanie, and other writers. One storyline pitch allegedly involved Reggie/Scrypts dressing up in drag, but it was scrapped only after a White writer objected, claiming that the idea would “perpetuate harmful stereotypes that would offend viewers.” If the plot had progressed, Reggie would have teamed up with Carmella, with whom he already collaborated.
Another pitch mentioned in the suit involved Shane Thorne (aka Slapjack). Thorne, who is from Australia, Abrahams claimed, would have used a “crocodile hunter” gimmick and then hunted Reggie “for fun.” “In a nutshell, the said hunting gimmick pitch for new wrestlers, Shane Thorne, and Reggie was, ‘since Shane is Australian, we should make him a crocodile hunter, and instead of crocodiles, he hunts people.’ Holding Reggie captive in cages was also discussed.”
Abrahams also claimed that Callahan pitched a storyline in which Mansoor was revealed to be the person “behind the 9/11 attacks.” Abrahams claimed she and other writers expressed concerns to Lubrano about the idea, but she allegedly responded, “Wacky things are said in the writer’s room all the time!” and “I know but look at the waves we’re making in the company. Four years ago, no woman worked on the writer’s team!”
Abrahams also accused Pepperman of “discriminatory treated Plaintiff and other black, and African American WWE employees poorly compared to their similarly-situated white, and Caucasian counterparts.”
Abrahams claimed that after raising these concerns and being repeatedly ignored or rebuffed, company officials “pretextually terminated” her for taking home a commemorative WrestleMania 38 chair in April 2022, but her lawyer argued that this was standard practice, Abrahams was told it would be OK to take the chair, and White male writers were not punished for the same offense.
The Cochran Firm was Abrahams’s legal counsel. They did not respond to a request for comment on their departure from Wrestlenomics today.
