The pro wrestling industry has sadly felt the weight of allegations of sexual misconduct over the past few months. Days before the 2024 WWE Royal Rumble, depraved allegations against Vince McMahon, John Laurinitis, and WWE surfaced in a lawsuit filed by former WWE employee Janel Grant. In an interview with Fansided, AEW President Tony Khan was asked about “some not-so-great things with women and abuse and things like that” and how AEW is working to protect women in the industry.
“Well, it’s a great question,” he began. “I can’t comment on the terrible allegations against WWE right now. I think that’s something people are paying a lot of attention to right now, with good reason. For us, first and foremost, trying to create a safe locker room environment for everybody, women and men. And we have a really, really good bond. I think we have a great locker room. And I think everybody knows there’s a support system there.
“There’s a lot of channels. And you know, I think everybody feels very good about having a safe place and a safe workspace and there’s people you can talk to, you know, there’s people in the office or even on the wrestling side. And, you know, for us, I think that’s the most important thing in any office, of any workplace, is just having a lot of people that will listen and want to make the company a safe, good place to work.”
Khan’s comments echo much of what he said at the AEW Worlds End media scrum when asked if Chris Jericho had ever been alleged of sexual misconduct during his time with AEW. The questions from reporters came on the heels of a former female AEW talent putting a heart emoji on a social media post implying misconduct by Jericho.
For those interested, the Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee released the following “Best Practices for Protecting Whistleblowers and Preventing and Addressing Retaliation” document in 2015. Here are the six key elements they feel are most needed within organizations to encourage employees to speak out about bad behavior and avoid retaliation.
- Leadership commitment
- A true “speak up” organizational culture that is the basis of a prevention-oriented program that
encourages raising and fair resolution of issues - Independent, protected resolution systems for allegations of retaliation
- Specific training to teach workers their rights and about available internal and external protection
programs, and for managers to learn these along with related skills, behaviors, and obligations to act - Monitoring and measurements that don’t contribute to suppression of reporting and which measure
the effort and effectiveness of inputs to a speak-up and non-retaliation culture - Independent auditing to determine if the program is actually working
If you or someone you know is dealing with sexual harassment or abuse, please visit online.rainn.org to chat one-on-one with a trained RAINN support specialist, any time, 24/7.
If you use any quotes from this article, please give a h/t to Haus of Wrestling and credit Fansided