Prior to his firing from a high-ranking ESPN College GameDay production role and subsequent hiring within WWE early this year, Lee Fitting was reportedly under investigation for a long history of alleged workplace misconduct.
A feature piece published in the New York Times’ The Athletic this week detailed how a 2023 investigation by ESPN’s HR department into a long history of inappropriate comments by Fitting coincided with his unceremonious departure from the company later that year. A pair of ESPN executives who spoke to the paper described that the investigation gave the company “little choice but to let Fitting go,” as described by reporters Katie Strang and Andrew Marchand.
Fitting was brought on as the new Head of Media & Production for WWE in January. Recent episodes of the promotion’s Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smackdown episodes have concluded with a credit roll, which includes Fitting listed as an Executive Producer for the show alongside Paul Levesque.
The recent report, which spoke to more than 20 current and former ESPN staffers, detailed a long history of Fitting allegedly making offensive and crude remarks towards women, including many of his co-workers. A spokesperson for Fitting denied many of the allegations and didn’t address others, per The Athletic.
Among the lengthy list of incidents, it was alleged that Fitting had jokingly asked on numerous occasions for the hotel room key of a female co-worker and performing “bed checks.” He would often comment regarding the appearance of female co-workers, including once saying “Goddamn!” after seeing a skirt that a woman was wearing, sources said.
The report also says that one source claimed he repeatedly told her to put her hair on a ponytail because he liked the look, and at one point texted “Put your hair up in a ponytail before I do it for you.”
Some who spoke to The Athletic recalled having to put up with inappropriate comments from Fitting to appear as part of the “boys club” within the broadcast team. Sources mentioned him often downplaying comments about female co-workers by claiming that “she’s one of the guys.”
“Women had warned each other to be conscious of interactions with him,” a source told The Athletic.
Many women described not reporting Fitting’s behavior as they worried it would endanger their own careers within the company. “It’s survival,” a source said.
Fitting had notably run into controversy before his internal ESPN investigation became public. In 2023, prior to his firing, another report from The Athletic revealed Fitting had been banned from Emmy participation after the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) “identified a number of fictitious credits submitted by ESPN to multiple Sports Emmys competitions.”
A spokesperson for WWE declined to comment when asked by The Athletic on Wednesday.
