Tag: Paul Roma

Paul Roma says male wrestlers in WWE were propositioned by people within the company. 

Roma wrestled with WWE from 1987 to 1991, primarily as a tag team wrestler. He teamed with Jim Powers as The Young Stallions and later with Hercules as Power & Glory. 

Roma spoke with NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield recently and addressed the allegations against Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and WWE. During the interview, Roma mentioned he knows of wrestlers who left the company due to being asked for “sexual favors.” 

Roma said:

It wasn’t so much Vince as it was the people that he had surrounding him. You’re talking about an industry where you have young, good-looking, well-built men in the ring. Half naked, three-quarters naked, actually. So, yeah I mean, it left a door open. 

He had a lot of people around him. Vice Presidents and bookers that were very much into that and they put you in a really, really bad situation, especially once you started making some money, you kind of get comfortable with that and then you find out that your job’s on the line. Either do it or get fired. And I witnessed quite a few that walked away. The money wasn’t worth it for them to go that route, so to speak.

When Roma was asked to clarify what the wrestlers were asked to do, he responded:

They were asked to do things, sexual things with other men that they did not want to do.My former partner being one of them. I was actually in a cab ride in Washington, and we were coming back and the gentleman next to me kept saying ‘It’s not worth it, It’s not worth the Benjamins, it’s not worth the Benjamins’ and I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ and he’s like, ‘It’s just not worth it.’ 

We got back to the hotel. The next day we were filming for our second TV taping and he was gone. He jumped on a flight and went back home and never showed up again to wrestle and he had an unfortunate accident and hit his head and passed away while he was asleep. He had a bleed on the brain.

Roma would also mention that his former tag partner in The Young Stallions, Jim Powers, dealt with a similar situation. 

Roma continued:

My former partner, one of my former partners when I was part of The Young Stallions, he was propositioned. He said he went to one of the agents and told them what had happened and I said, ‘Why would you do that? You just ratted on both of us.’ So, he kind of threw us both under the bus when we were just starting out. 

When asked to clarify if it was executives within the company who were propositioning these wrestlers, Roma responded:

Let’s leave it this way, that’s all it could be. If somebody is going to give you money, then it has to be that. There is nothing else. It’s not going to be one of the other boys that you’re wrestling with, they’re not going to offer you money.

Even my former partner, same thing, they offered him money, drugs. ‘Just lay on your back, you don’t have to do a thing.’ And he came running right to me when I came into TV and I said ‘Dude, what are you going to do?’ And he said, ‘Oh, I’ve already spoke to Arnold.’ And I said, ‘Well, why did you do that? You just killed our team. What do you think he’s going to do? He’s just going to go to the people that propositioned you.

Roma formerly ran a wrestling school in Connecticut with his friend and former WWE wrestler, Mario Mancini. Mancini was also a recent guest on NewsNation and mentioned there was an incident that has not come out that is even worse than what was in the Janel Grant lawsuit. Roma confirmed he knows the story and speculated the victim may not want to “open Pandora’s Box” by coming out with the allegations now.

When asked about the story, Roma responded:

I really shouldn’t right now, but yes, I do know what it is and it is worse. 

Mario and I are really surprised, we spoke about it, and we’re surprised that no one has come forward but on the flip side, I think that they’re of an age now that they may be married and have kids and they don’t want to open Pandora’s box. And I can’t blame them.