The WWE Ring Boy Scandal Dates Back to the '80s — How Much Did Vince and Linda McMahon Know About It?

In March 1992, a lawsuit was drafted against the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) as well as three employees of the company. The plaintiff was Thomas Cole, a 22-year-old former ring boy who began his wrestling entertainment career in 1985 at the age of 15. A ring boy was responsible for getting the ring ready before each match and running errands for the wrestlers and crew. Cole worked for the WWF until 1990.

Of the three employees also being sued, the one that stood out the most was former ring crew boss and ring announcer Mel Phillips. He would later be part of a lawsuit filed in October 2024 which alleges that WWE, and previous owners Vince and Linda McMahon, were aware of Phillips's abuse. This was dubbed the WWE ring boy scandal. Here's what we know.

Cole, along with another ring boy named Chris Loss, came forward and accused Phillips of sexually abusing them in order to satisfy his foot fetish, reported Rolling Stone. In the draft complaint, Cole claimed that Phillips would film him with a "video camera while fondling the boy's feet and masturbating." He clarified that the ring announcer "would frequently caress plaintiff's feet and would rub them against [Phillips's] own genital area," per Business Insider.

Cole's lawsuit was settled in 1993 for $55,000 and the promise of continuing employment by the WWF. "Boys are getting propositioned and played with all the time," Loss told The San Diego Union-Tribune (via Business Insider) in 1992. "You sort of put up with it because you can make a lot of money." Phillips was fired in 1988 but that didn't really stick until 1992, when he was let go permanently. That was followed by more controversy.

In the same month that Cole and Loss went public with their accusations, Vince McMahon went on Larry King Live and said he had "no idea whatsoever" that the alleged sexual abuse was going on. He also said he "really didn't know what to make of it." New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick told Business Insider that he was furious after watching that interview.

Just a few days prior, Mushnick penned a scathing article about the WWF with the headline "Sex, Lies and the WWF."

"Two weeks ago, during pour-his-heart-out phone calls," Mushnick wrote, "[McMahon] told West Coast-based journalist Dave Meltzer, then me, that he had let Phillips go four years ago because Phillips's relationship with kids seemed peculiar and unnatural." When Phillips was re-hired, he had to promise he would stay away from kids.

Although McMahon would sue Mushnick and the New York Post, that lawsuit was later dropped. When Mushnick was deposed, he also revealed that Vince and his wife Linda McMahon "had known for some time that Mel had a peculiar and unnatural interest and attachment to children." The McMahons allowed him to return to the WWF because they felt sorry for him. "Vince and Linda returned Phillips to the organization with the caveat that Mel steer clear of underaged boys, stop hanging around kids, and stop chasing after kids."

Despite the fact that Phillips died in 2012, he is still named in the 2024 lawsuit filed against WWE, parent company TKO Group Holdings, and WWE co-founders/former executives Vince and Linda McMahon. It was filed by five men known as John Doe 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, who "describe sexual abuse that began with Phillips targeting them as wrestling fans he met at or around shows he was working on, or in social situations near his home in Philadelphia."