With misconduct allegations about WWE owner and CEO Vince McMahon being investigated by the WWE board of directors, former wrestler Leonard Inzitari (Mario Mancini in the ring) came forward and backed Rita Chatterton’s 1992 claim McMahon raped her in his limo in 1986.
Chatterton’s credited as being the first female referee in pro wrestling history from her time working in the WWE in the early/mid 1980s.
She appeared on Geraldo Rivera’s Now It Can Be Told and The Geraldo Rivero Show where she went into detail about what happened that night.
McMahon denied the allegations through his lawyer, and lawsuits were filed against her, Geraldo, and others for emotional harm done through their false allegations. The lawsuits were dropped as the WWE was embroiled in other legal issues including the steroid trial.
Coming forward
Chatterton was recently interviewed by nymag.com where she said she told two people about what happened — her two closest friends in WWE, Andre the Giant and Mario Mancini.
Inzitari said he found her by a ring the day after the incident and asked her what happened.
“I remember it like it was yesterday. She was a wreck. She was shaking. She was crying,” he said, and she told him everything that happened.
He kept quiet since then out of fear he would face being black balled by McMahon as he and his family controlled a majority of the industry.
But now he’s come forward following the other board’s investigation and Chatterton’s allegations resurfacing.
On explaining why he decided to come forward, Inzitari said:
“He’s dug himself such a deep hole that I’m just tired of it. I can’t do it anymore.”
The more that comes out, the worse it looks for McMahon, who has been appearing on WWE television for brief segments since.
He’s always been a fighter, and with the board largely comprised of his family, it’s going to be interesting to see how the investigation plays out with Chatterton’s story resurfacing and being corroborated.
There’s so many different ways this could go, and as of this writing there has been no word from the WWE about this allegation.
While Chatterton has been ignored in the WWE as the first female wrestler, she received a “Trailblazer Award” from the International Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame for being the WWE’s first female referee.
She was reluctant to accept at first as he didn’t want to revisit he time in the WWE, but she eventually accepted the award.
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