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WWE’s first female referee to claim she was raped by former chairman Vince McMahon in the 1980s revealed new details about the incident amid a slew of new allegations against the wrestling boss.
Rita Chatterton, who became a New York licensed wrestling referee in 1984, previously accused McMahon of forcing himself on her in a limo in a 1992 interview with Geraldo Rivera.
Their allegations were corroborated by former professional wrestler Leonard Inzitari in a new report from New York Magazine – which also addressed the causes of the harrowing encounter nearly four decades ago.
“He promised me half a million dollars a year,” she told the outlet in Monday’s story, referring to the contract offer McMahon made over the phone after her television debut with then-WWF in January 1985.
McMahon, whose father founded WWF, had called Chatterton to tell her he was “impressed” with her work and wanted her to go “full-time,” but had a warning for her, she told New York Magazine.
“Keep yourself clean,” he said, according to Chatterton.
“I don’t want you messing with any of the wrestlers. You stay professional.”
The wrestling mogul also told Chatterton that she would appear on the covers of glossy titles like Women’s Day, Better Homes and Gardens and Time, so she quit her job as a delivery driver at Frito-Lay and started working full-time to devote to wrestling. But the relationship soured when the young referee tried to move on — and McMahon allegedly raped her in July 1986.
During her interview with New York Magazine, Chatterton declined to go into specifics, but Inzitari, a longtime friend from the business, confirmed her story for the first time since the allegations were made.
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Inzitari told the outlet.
“She was a wreck. she was shaking. She cried.”
Inzitari, whose stage name was Mario Mancini, said shortly after the incident that he saw Chatterton standing alone near the wrestling ring and when she saw him she burst into tears and told him she was in McMahon’s limousine when he “took his penis out.”
“He kind of forced my head down, and I made it known that I wasn’t interested,” Inzitari recalled Chatterton telling him.
“Then, [McMahon] attracted me,” she told Inzitari, and soon “he was inside her.”
Chatterton told the outlet the attack came after she asked McMahon to talk about her career, and he told her to meet her at a diner after the show.
Later, as Chatterton sat at a “big round table” with about a dozen others, she brought up her career, but McMahon told her to keep quiet, she told the outlet.
“[He] put his finger to his mouth, in a shhh sign,” she recalls.
“When I come out of the powder room, McMahon is there … and he’s like, ‘I don’t want to talk to you about your career in front of all these people because it’s none of their business.'”
He suggested the two go to another diner down the street, but as she left the restaurant, McMahon said he was tired and asked to speak in his limousine.
“It only takes 10 minutes,” he reportedly said.
During her interview with Rivera, Chatterton claimed McMahon then unzipped his pants and orally raped her.
“Vince went on, you know, ‘If you want a half-million dollar contract, you have to please me, and that’s how things have to be,'” she said at the time.
“Vince grabbed my hand and kept trying to put my hand on him. i was scared In the end my wrist was all purple, black and blue. Things just didn’t… He just… God, he just didn’t stop. This man just wouldn’t stop.”
Chatterton told Rivera that McMahon asked how her daughter wanted to go to college, saying, “Of course she doesn’t have to go to college.”
“I was forced to have oral sex with Vince McMahon. When I couldn’t fulfill his wishes, he got really angry, started tearing down my jeans, pulled me onto him, and told me again that if I wanted a half-million-dollar-a-year contract, I had to satisfy him . He could make me or break me and if I didn’t please him I would ball up black, that was it, I was done,” she told Rivera.
Speaking to New York Magazine, Chatterton recalled what McMahon said after the attack was over.
“One of the things that sticks with me and always will… was after he finished his business, he looked at me and said, ‘Remember when I told you not to mess with any of the wrestlers ? Well, you just did,'” she recalled.
After the attack, Chatterton told New York Magazine she went to the diner’s restroom and “cried my heart out” before going home and “showered for five hours.”
While she contacted an attorney hoping to hold McMahon accountable, she ultimately decided against it.
“It turned out my word was against McMahon’s because I showered and didn’t go to the hospital,” she said.
“I was afraid… He was powerful. He would surpass me.”
When Chatterton Rivera first told her story in 1992, WWE was already in the midst of numerous scandals and her claims were buried in the noise. She soon left wrestling altogether and became a youth counselor.
Earlier this month, McMahon was accused of paying millions of dollars in hush money to an employee with whom he was having an affair, leading to his resignation from his role as CEO and chairman of WWE.
The new claims have inspired Chatterton and Inzitari to speak out after so much time has passed.
“I’m sure others will come forward. Because we’re not the only two. I have no doubt about that,” Chatterton told the outlet.
“As far as wrestling goes, I guess I’m first in a lot of things… As far as I know, I’m the first to come out with the whole question of what a bastard he is.”
Inzitari, who has avoided speaking negatively of McMahon in the past, agreed.
“I’m going to tell you why I’m jumping on the bandwagon now,” he said.
“There are worse things than that.”
WWE has not responded to a request for comment.
