Jake Leonard 
Vince McMahon is seeking a return to power in WWE, according to a story last week. Several sources within WWE confirmed a story published in the Wall Street Journal.
The potential return has also become a major subject of discussion among WWE talent and employees.
This story noted a demand letter on November 3 from a lawyer for former referee Chatterton for $11.75 million to WWE’s legal counsel and McMahon’s personal attorney Jerry McDevitt.
Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer details further (subscription required) on Chatterton’s claim that McMahon raped her in the back of his limo.
Chatterton, now 65, alleges that McMahon raped her in the back of his limo in 1986.
Chatterton stated in an April 13, 1992 broadcast of Geraldo Rivera’s syndicated talk show that McMahon said she had to satisfy him if she wanted a $500,000 contract and marketed heavily as the first female referee.
Shortly afterward, McMahon lost interest in marketing her. She went to a television taping in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. to discuss the contract McMahon promises her but never honored.
Chatterton’s remarks on the Geraldo broadcast are below, courtesy of Fair Use John Doe:
Chatterton sued for $5 million in damages in 1992 in relation to the claim, stating McMahon never paid her. However, McMahon claimed to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that it was consensual.
The following year, McMahon sued Chatterton and Rivera, a member of Chatterton’s staff, The New York Post, and Phil Mushnick for the television broadcasts and articles written about him at the time. He would further claim in his lawsuit that she was induced to make a false claim against him by a former wrestler “with an axe to grind.”
That former wrestler is presumed to be David Schultz, whose career was destroyed nine years earlier in December 1984 when he hit journalist John Stossel in the face twice during an interview at Madison Square Garden. However, the identity of the former wrestler is not officially known.
McMahon’s 1993 lawsuit also claimed that WWF/WWE stopped booking her after the incident, stating she was a danger to herself and others in the ring.
McMahon was indicted in late 1993 prior in relation to the anabolic steroids scandal (United States v. McMahon). As a result, he dropped all lawsuits against his accusers.
Details on the spa assault
The former spa manager is alleging that she and a client were assaulted by McMahon in 2011 at a resort in southern California while he was there for a WWE show.
She reported the alleged assault immediately to the resort, but also to her husband. Her husband drove to the WWE show with a baseball bat as an attempt to confront McMahon, but he was never allowed near McMahon.
The former spa manager’s attorney Michael Bressler has been in contact with WWE legal counsel and McMahon’s personal attorney Jerry McDevitt since July, with the letter sent as recent as a few weeks ago.
The initial WSJ story, with the two recent scandals, was released on the same day as Vice TV aired a two-hour episode of Dark Side of the Ring on McMahon, sharing scandal after scandal. They include incidents ranging from the death of Nancy Argentino involving Jimmy Snuka, Chatterton, the death of Owen Hart, the Attitude Era, the Montreal Screwjob, the deaths of Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero, and the steroids trial.
