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Article by Deadspin: How Nicole Bass Was Slut-Shamed By WWE During Her Sexual Harassment Lawsuit
How Nicole Bass Was Slut-Shamed By WWE During Her Sexual Harassment Lawsuit
On Friday, former WWE, WCW, and Impact wrestling writer Vince Russo, pro wrestling’s favorite pariah, relayed a storyon his podcast that piqued a lot of interest. “I never talk about this, because this is a touchy one, I can tell you one of the female wrestlers came up to me [and] told me that she was raped by another wrestler on the roster,” he said. It reminded me of a similar story that was forgotten with rather shocking speed: an existing sexual assault allegation in the public record from the time when Russo was at his most prolific in WWE. If Russo is telling the truth about this at all, though, the woman who confided in him is not the one who went public with her story nearly two decades ago. That woman, the bodybuilder turned wrestler Nicole Bass, died in February.
Bass was best known for her appearances as part of Howard Stern’s cast of characters when WWE contacted her in early 1999, but she had been flirting with the sport for some time before then. She showed up as a surprise at that year’s WrestleMania and helped Sable, the biggest female star in the company, retain her women’s title. That bodyguard gimmick quickly ended when Sable left the company and filed a sexual harassment lawsuit seeking damages of $100 million. Most of the attention devoted to that lawsuit went to a passage that mentioned men “accidentally” walking into the women’s locker room, a peephole being cut into a wall on at least one occasion, tales of “big nipple contests,” and other assorted harassment.
That suit ended uneventfully a couple months later, with the dismissal coming less than a week after Bass had received her own release from her contract. The self-proclaimed “World’s Largest Female Bodybuilder” then filed her own $120 million sexual harassment lawsuit a couple months after that. Of the allegations outlined in her complaint, the one that sticks out the most is where Bass says that she was groped by the wrestler turned longtime backstage producer “Brooklyn Brawler” Steve Lombardi. “After Ms. Bass firmly rejected each of Defendant Lombardi’s overtures, he physically assaulted Ms. Bass by grabbing and groping her breasts with both hands while pushing her up against a wall of the plane and pushing his body into hers,” wrote Bass’s counsel. “While Plaintiff struggled to get him off her, Lombardi kept coming at her. Upon information and belief, [WWE] was well aware of Defendant Lombardi’s long-standing reputation for sexually harassing and abusive conduct.”
With all of this in mind and a free afternoon, I went to the court holding the records from the case, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, because the case is largely seen as a historical footnote. I remembered that WWE won the eventual trial, with their lawyer and the jury foreman later shredding Bass’s credibility in The New York Post; “I think this kind of stuff belittles all those valid arguments by women,” the foreman told the tabloid. Coverage in general leaned towards the skeptical, and the Post’s Linda Stasi even wrote a piecemaking fun of the idea that the groping incident could happen without Bass “suplex[ing] that suit flat in no time.” But there wasn’t much more information available without taking the subway to High Street. I was wondering what extra details might stand out in the #MeToo era. Given that I was 14 when Bass filed her suit, I also wondered what an adult eye might catch that I missed at the time.
The (incomplete) file didn’t offer much more insight into what Bass said happened to her during her brief WWE stint. But there was plenty to be learned about how WWE defended itself against the lawsuit. While not surprising, that defense generally reeks of slut shaming and other abuse. It might be defensible from a “lawyers zealously defending their clients” perspective, but that doesn’t really make it come off much better on the page, or make it any easier to read.
WWE’s attorneys seemed particularly interested in admitting Bass’s past in sex work to the record. Her work included both “private wrestling” sessions for a fee and bondage videos for the shock porn studio Extreme Associates, the latter of which also owned wrestling promotion XPW. “We have no objection to the WWF’s seeking information related to any monies the plaintiff earned after leaving the WWF with respect to her duty to mitigate her damages,” Bass lawyer A. Kathleen Tomlinson wrote in a July 30, 2001 letter to the judge. She did take issue, though, with WWE’s “hopes to introduce these videotapes” and “characterize these videos as ‘pornographic’ [...] to paint a portrait of my client as ‘unsavory.’” Noting that Bass’s segments were free of “sex or nudity,” she also accused Extreme Associates owner Rob Black of misleading Bass, saying he told her the videos would just feature her when they were actually compiled with other porn.
Three days later, WWE attorney Mark Rush sent his own letter attempting to compel discovery on the videos. It was attached to a sealed envelope containing color copies of every side of the box art for all the Bass bondage videotapes in question. The defense was requesting that the judge deny a request to invoke Federal Rule of Evidence 412, the federal rape shield law, to keep out the videos. “This case is a harangue of a lawsuit,” wrote Rush. “Bass filed this Title VII lawsuit seeking $120 million dollars. She is claiming, inter alia, that [WWE] created a hostile work environment, which caused her embarrassment, humiliation, “depression, etc. Yet within months after departing the WWF, Bass entered another ‘workplace’ and participated in and created for commercial distribution extremely graphic S&M and bondage videos for Extreme Associates, Inc. To somehow claim a hostile work environment at the WWF, while the Plaintiff is creating the scenes described below, is an affront to Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act], to this Court, and to the Defendants.”
The pleading then summarizes the Bass-centric content of each video, including warning the judge and any other readers in a superfluous footnote that “Due to Bass’s conduct the descriptions are graphic.” Well, yeah. The summaries include lines like:
It’s less clear that it amounted to anything. From both the files and the case’s docket there does not appear to be an official ruling on this discovery dispute. At least going by the contemporary coverage, it seems as if it didn’t work. As this discovery dispute over the videos was going on, WWE got some pushback on that topic from Bass’s former accountant, Ron Noreman. In deposition excerpts outlining bodybuilders’ role in the fetish world, one particular exchange stands out.
“What does one issue have to do with another?” Noreman asked Rush. “If someone goes to a topless bar and the person happens to be a topless dancer, does that give the patrons in that place the right to rape her or grab her after work? One has nothing to do with the other. It is irrelevant.” The WWE lawyer started to reply that this “your example, that is not a sexual harassment lawsuit but a criminal…” only for Noreman to interrupt and point out that “If the owner of that topless bar grabbed that dancer, then it is a sexual harassment suit and doesn’t change anything.”
How Nicole Bass Was Slut-Shamed By WWE During Her Sexual Harassment Lawsuit
On Friday, former WWE, WCW, and Impact wrestling writer Vince Russo, pro wrestling’s favorite pariah, relayed a storyon his podcast that piqued a lot of interest. “I never talk about this, because this is a touchy one, I can tell you one of the female wrestlers came up to me [and] told me that she was raped by another wrestler on the roster,” he said. It reminded me of a similar story that was forgotten with rather shocking speed: an existing sexual assault allegation in the public record from the time when Russo was at his most prolific in WWE. If Russo is telling the truth about this at all, though, the woman who confided in him is not the one who went public with her story nearly two decades ago. That woman, the bodybuilder turned wrestler Nicole Bass, died in February.
Bass was best known for her appearances as part of Howard Stern’s cast of characters when WWE contacted her in early 1999, but she had been flirting with the sport for some time before then. She showed up as a surprise at that year’s WrestleMania and helped Sable, the biggest female star in the company, retain her women’s title. That bodyguard gimmick quickly ended when Sable left the company and filed a sexual harassment lawsuit seeking damages of $100 million. Most of the attention devoted to that lawsuit went to a passage that mentioned men “accidentally” walking into the women’s locker room, a peephole being cut into a wall on at least one occasion, tales of “big nipple contests,” and other assorted harassment.
That suit ended uneventfully a couple months later, with the dismissal coming less than a week after Bass had received her own release from her contract. The self-proclaimed “World’s Largest Female Bodybuilder” then filed her own $120 million sexual harassment lawsuit a couple months after that. Of the allegations outlined in her complaint, the one that sticks out the most is where Bass says that she was groped by the wrestler turned longtime backstage producer “Brooklyn Brawler” Steve Lombardi. “After Ms. Bass firmly rejected each of Defendant Lombardi’s overtures, he physically assaulted Ms. Bass by grabbing and groping her breasts with both hands while pushing her up against a wall of the plane and pushing his body into hers,” wrote Bass’s counsel. “While Plaintiff struggled to get him off her, Lombardi kept coming at her. Upon information and belief, [WWE] was well aware of Defendant Lombardi’s long-standing reputation for sexually harassing and abusive conduct.”
With all of this in mind and a free afternoon, I went to the court holding the records from the case, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, because the case is largely seen as a historical footnote. I remembered that WWE won the eventual trial, with their lawyer and the jury foreman later shredding Bass’s credibility in The New York Post; “I think this kind of stuff belittles all those valid arguments by women,” the foreman told the tabloid. Coverage in general leaned towards the skeptical, and the Post’s Linda Stasi even wrote a piecemaking fun of the idea that the groping incident could happen without Bass “suplex[ing] that suit flat in no time.” But there wasn’t much more information available without taking the subway to High Street. I was wondering what extra details might stand out in the #MeToo era. Given that I was 14 when Bass filed her suit, I also wondered what an adult eye might catch that I missed at the time.
The (incomplete) file didn’t offer much more insight into what Bass said happened to her during her brief WWE stint. But there was plenty to be learned about how WWE defended itself against the lawsuit. While not surprising, that defense generally reeks of slut shaming and other abuse. It might be defensible from a “lawyers zealously defending their clients” perspective, but that doesn’t really make it come off much better on the page, or make it any easier to read.
WWE’s attorneys seemed particularly interested in admitting Bass’s past in sex work to the record. Her work included both “private wrestling” sessions for a fee and bondage videos for the shock porn studio Extreme Associates, the latter of which also owned wrestling promotion XPW. “We have no objection to the WWF’s seeking information related to any monies the plaintiff earned after leaving the WWF with respect to her duty to mitigate her damages,” Bass lawyer A. Kathleen Tomlinson wrote in a July 30, 2001 letter to the judge. She did take issue, though, with WWE’s “hopes to introduce these videotapes” and “characterize these videos as ‘pornographic’ [...] to paint a portrait of my client as ‘unsavory.’” Noting that Bass’s segments were free of “sex or nudity,” she also accused Extreme Associates owner Rob Black of misleading Bass, saying he told her the videos would just feature her when they were actually compiled with other porn.
Three days later, WWE attorney Mark Rush sent his own letter attempting to compel discovery on the videos. It was attached to a sealed envelope containing color copies of every side of the box art for all the Bass bondage videotapes in question. The defense was requesting that the judge deny a request to invoke Federal Rule of Evidence 412, the federal rape shield law, to keep out the videos. “This case is a harangue of a lawsuit,” wrote Rush. “Bass filed this Title VII lawsuit seeking $120 million dollars. She is claiming, inter alia, that [WWE] created a hostile work environment, which caused her embarrassment, humiliation, “depression, etc. Yet within months after departing the WWF, Bass entered another ‘workplace’ and participated in and created for commercial distribution extremely graphic S&M and bondage videos for Extreme Associates, Inc. To somehow claim a hostile work environment at the WWF, while the Plaintiff is creating the scenes described below, is an affront to Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act], to this Court, and to the Defendants.”
The pleading then summarizes the Bass-centric content of each video, including warning the judge and any other readers in a superfluous footnote that “Due to Bass’s conduct the descriptions are graphic.” Well, yeah. The summaries include lines like:
- “Bass calls [Gina] a ‘f—king c—t,’ and spits in her face and spits in her eye.”
- “Bass instructs a woman to cover her nipples with duck [sic] tape.”
- “Bass pours barbeque sauce on a man in a diaper and breaks eggs on his head.”
- “Bass demands that [former ECW wrestler] Kronus cut himself with a razor blade (real, not gimmicked).”
It’s less clear that it amounted to anything. From both the files and the case’s docket there does not appear to be an official ruling on this discovery dispute. At least going by the contemporary coverage, it seems as if it didn’t work. As this discovery dispute over the videos was going on, WWE got some pushback on that topic from Bass’s former accountant, Ron Noreman. In deposition excerpts outlining bodybuilders’ role in the fetish world, one particular exchange stands out.
“What does one issue have to do with another?” Noreman asked Rush. “If someone goes to a topless bar and the person happens to be a topless dancer, does that give the patrons in that place the right to rape her or grab her after work? One has nothing to do with the other. It is irrelevant.” The WWE lawyer started to reply that this “your example, that is not a sexual harassment lawsuit but a criminal…” only for Noreman to interrupt and point out that “If the owner of that topless bar grabbed that dancer, then it is a sexual harassment suit and doesn’t change anything.”
Nicole was cracking eggs well before B. Pumper?
