Ring boy scandal

The ring boy scandal is a sex scandal in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; now known as WWE) centered around allegations that in the late 1980s and early 1990s ring announcer Mel Phillips (1941–2012) had recruited teenage boys for the purposes of sexual exploitation. The scandal, which came at a time of turmoil for WWF—at the same time, they were suspected of supplying illegal steroids to their wrestlers—resulted in the dismissal of Phillips, Terry Garvin and, temporarily, Pat Patterson in 1992.

WWE, then known as the World Wrestling Federation – is a professional wrestling promotion based in Stamford, Connecticut; from its foundation in 1953 until its 2023 sale to Endeavor, it was owned and operated by the McMahon family. In 1982, Vince McMahon bought the promotion from his father and underwent an aggressive national expansion which effectively made WWF the leading promotion in the country, and later, the world.

As was standard within the wrestling industry at the time, WWF would routinely recruit young men as gofers; in particular, they would be asked to help set up the ring before events. Mel Phillips, who appeared on-screen as a ring announcer, was tasked with managing the ring crew. In 1992, one such "ring boy", Tom Cole, went public with allegations of sexual abuse against WWF, which were initially broken in the New York Post by sports journalist Phil Mushnick on February 26, 1992.

Cole initially started working for WWF in 1983 at the age of thirteen; he initially worked at house shows in Westchester County, New York before being hired for events in New York City, and eventually, other major cities along the Northeast Corridor. Cole was a runaway from a single-parent home, and alleged that Phillips would encourage him to recruit other boys from broken homes for ring work. According to a draft legal complaint against WWF, Phillips engaged in fetishistic play with Cole's feet, such as rubbing them against his genitals, and other boys had similar experiences.

Cole also alleged that Terry Joyal – who wrestled for the WWF under the ring name Terry Garvin and was Phillips' supervisor backstage – had sexually harassed him twice as a teenager. On the first occasion in 1988, Joyal allegedly solicited Cole on a car trip to Massachusetts and offered him alcohol and drugs; after rebutting the advances, Cole was not offered further work for some time. On the second occasion, in 1990, Joyal allegedly solicited Cole for oral sex; after Cole rejected the advances again, Phillips rescinded a job offer to Cole, supposedly on Joyal's orders. In a 2020 statement to Business Insider, WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt confirmed the second incident did take place, but denied that it was indicative of a culture of child sexual abuse, as Cole was nineteen years old at the time. Cole also made similar accusations of sexual harassment against Joyal's boss Pat Patterson, another veteran wrestler and a member of McMahon's inner circle.

In response to Mushnick's story, WWF issued a statement that it would "take responsible action regarding any legitimate claims filed through lawful channels"; on March 2, 1992, Joyal, Patterson, and Phillips all resigned their roles in the company. At the same time, Mushnick alleged that McMahon had telephoned him and said that Phillips had been initially dismissed in 1988 because he had a "peculiar and unnatural" relationship with the ring boys, had been re-hired several months later if Phillips promised to "steer clear from kids", and that Phillips would not be offered his job back in the light of the scandal.

On March 11, The San Diego Union-Tribune published an article that not only mentioned Cole's allegations, but also summarised the ongoing steroid use scandal and allegations by former WWF wrestler Barry Orton and former announcer Murray Hodgson against Joyal and Patterson. The story also included allegations by another former ring boy, Chris Loss, who alleged "boys [were] getting propositioned and played with all the time", but that ring boys "put up with it" because WWF generously paid them.

On March 13, Cole's attorney Alan Fuchsberg sent a draft copy of a legal complaint to WWF, seeking $3.5 million in restitution. Two days later, Cole and Fuchsberg met with Vince McMahon, his wife Linda, and WWF's counsel Jerry McDevitt at Fuchsberg's offices in Manhattan. According to Cole in a 1999 interview, he initially offered to settle for approximately $750,000, but eventually acquiesced to a settlement that would see him re-hired by WWF with backpay.