Warning: This article contains language and descriptions of sexual assault involving minors
A former WWF ring boy spoke publicly for the first time on Monday night regarding his time in the company from 1986-87.
Lee Cole, the older brother of the deceased Tom Cole, interviewed a former WWF ring boy and aired it on his YouTube channel on Monday night.
The person was only identified by their first name, “Shawn”, and began working on the ring crew when he was attending high school and in a foster home, often being picked up and traveling with Mel Phillips.
Phillips served as both a ring announcer for the company and its ring crew chief.
Shawn was based in Philadelphia and would work company events in the area but was also taken across state lines and mentioned going to Baltimore, New York, and brought to the Titan Sports warehouse in Connecticut. He estimated that he was picked up ten times by Phillips for trips.
Shawn alleged inappropriate actions by Phillips when they were in their hotel rooms, noting that they would often stay in the same room. Regarding having separate beds, “I think it depended on how many people were with us.”
“There’s like two Mels. There’s the Mel Phillips that was the ring announcer, that took you to the shows, fed you, gave you money. Then there’s the behind-the-scenes Mel that, once that hotel room door shuts, it’s like a little different.”
Shawn said that Phillips would wrestle with him in hotel rooms, although he didn’t think much of it. “He’s trying to make me submit to this wrestling hold or whatever,” he remembers thinking.
He describes his feet being put on the crotch of Phillips. The WWF employee would allegedly wear as little as just underwear during these instances and would sit in Shawn’s lap.
“Mel had this thing about your feet. So, he would wrestle you and grab your toes,” he described at one point.
After leaving his role as a ring boy, Shawn joined the Army and would eventually do two tours of Iraq and went on to become a police officer.
When Tom Cole first spoke out in 1992 regarding his allegations against Phillips, Terry Garvin, and Pat Patterson, Shawn recalled, “Well, when that came out I was already in the Army. I was like, ‘Wait a minute, that happened to me … “That’s similar to what happened to me, sort of.”
Phillips was initially fired by the WWF in 1988 with Vince McMahon later telling columnist Phil Mushnick of the New York Post that he felt Phillips had an “unnatural” interest in young boys – Phillips was later rehired with the provision that he “steer clear from kids”, as David Bixenspan reported from contemporaneous reporting from Mushnick and Dave Meltzer.
In 1992, WWF cut ties with Phillips permanently.
The interview with Shawn ended abruptly and it appears the remainder of the interview will be posted at a later date.
