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Marc the Smark
05-25-2005, 01:12 PM
This is an old interview, and old news, but interesting nonetheless...

Tom Cole

Tom Cole Interview, by Chris Yandek (New Era of Wrestling)

The book Sex, Lies, and Headlocks is a story on Vince McMahon's life that is coming out soon. In that book is a story about one of the biggest sex scandals in the WWF that involved a guy by the name of Tom Cole. Tom Cole was a roadie who was sexually harassed at 13 years old by Mel Phillips, a former ring announcer. Tom Cole today, now at age 30, came forward and shares a story of the dark side of the wrestling business and one of the biggest media stories of the 1990's.

First off how are you?

"I am doing good Chris."

You ended up in the WWF as a kid by the help of Mel Phillips the ring announcer at the time for the WWF. Tell me about how that all started.

"It happened about 1984 and there was a show in Yonkers, New York at a local high school. They used to do the charity events at local high schools before they became big with WrestleMania. I snuck into the building and Mel Phillips caught me in there, and I think it was about the time Marvin Gaye was killed. He asked me if I could sit by this radio and record a tribute that they were playing for Marvin Gaye, and he said that he would get me tickets to the matches that night and that is really what happened from there. Then they would run local shows up in the Westchester County center every month at that time and Arnold Skaaland who you might not know ran the Westchester County Center for them for years. I would go there every month and sell programs for his wife Mrs. Skaaland which was the job Mel Phillips got me. I would also sell T-shirts and set up the ring and things like that."

You started working at first with them on the side doing little things and Mel Phillips was already around.

"Yea. Mel Phillips was always the liaison I guess you could say between myself and the WWF. He would have other young people traveling with him from all parts of the country, and over the years I guess you would begin to realize that he would have kids all over the country in every part so to speak that the WWF would go to and he would have a black book. He would have young boys from broken homes each town they visited, and they would basically do the same thing that I would do like set up rings, sell programs, take ring jackets, and get coffee for the wrestlers."

So Mel Phillips targeted young kids from less fortunate familles?

"Absolutely. That was definitely his MO. It is almost like a father figure of sorts."

When you worked with the WWF, Terry Garvin asked you to give him oral sex or you were out of a job.

"Those things happened before I became a full fledged employee at the behest of Vince and Linda McMahon because they fired Terry Garvin and Mel Phillips and they suspended Pat Patterson who later came back. I believe to this day Terry and Mel have never come back to the WWF so for them to say I wasn't telling the truth or really that says a lot that they never came back. Terry wouldn't come back now because he is dead, but it says a lot he never came back prior to his death and Mel has never been back. The WWF knows I have been telling the truth since the beginning, and they really can't handle someone who has the truth on their side."

After being sexually harassed how did you get the strength to move on?

"Well, I guess the sexual abuse by Mel Phillips in a sense, he had a fetish for feet. He used to play with my feet and other kids' feet, and that was his thing. He wasn't the type of molester who would put his hand down your pants or something like that, and that is what made it so hard because you didn't understand at this time being 13 years old this guy is playing with your toes, but he always made it seem like you were wrestling. Then he would get your foot and play with it for like an hour or so, and looking back on it now it makes you sick to your stomach because he took advantage of you at a young age and you would not even know what it meant. Most likely maybe your father or your mother told you once that anyone who tries to physically abuse you, and maybe your first experience with sexual abuse might be some guy grabbing your crotch or something, then a red flag would go up. I think though then who would say people get off on playing with toes, and now your older and you realize that people are into that so that is what he was doing over the years."

Do you think Vince McMahon knew about the sexual harassment going on?

"Well, I would like to say that what Mel Phillips was doing was not sexual harassment but more sexual abuse of children because he was doing it in a sexual manner now that I look back on it, and others who look back on it and reading into sexual fetishes and people playing with feet he obviously got off on that. He would actually record him doing this with a video recorder. It wasn't like if you look at the whole picture now wow this guy really had a lot of problems. Vince McMahon knew of the fondness Mel Phillips had for young boys, and it was definitely not a secret within the WWF. Vince knew then and knows now everything that goes on from top to bottom in his company. Mel was warned I guess over the years to not bring the young kids around, but I guess he continued to do it anyway. That was pretty much his thing."

You got a lot of media attention with interviews with Tom Brokaw, Geraldo Rivera and many other media outlets. Could you summarize what the media attention was like and how it hurt the WWF at the time?

"Well, when I came forward in 1991 I spoke to Phil Mushnick of the New York Post for about a year and gave him an interview, and I guess when you bring up allegations such as any type of sexual abuse and things like that against a big company like the WWF, the media outlets have to be careful what they do and don't print because you could be sued. The real more respectable media checks these kinda things, and speaking of Phil Mushnick I sent him wrestling tickets, hotel stubs, receipts, plane tickets of where I went with the WWF when I was 15 or 16 years old so there was no way to dismiss the fact of what I was saying was truthful. When I was 15 and 16 years old I would go with them from Madison Square Garden to Nausea Coliseum to Boston to Baltimore to Philadelphia so you know, sometimes to Washington, D.C. to do shows with them at 15 and 16 years old. There is no way the WWF could say that I wasn't working with them you know and there is no way around that, and I did work with the WWF so that is what Phil Mushnick did and it took him a whole year to put it all together and once he ran with it every media outlet ran with it. The gauntlet of wrestling talk shows like Maury Povich and all those guys called and wanted interviews and stuff like that. I hired a lawyer and the WWF got a hold of it, and they pretty much came after me to see what happened with me."

During the Phil Donahue show in 1992 you sat in the audience with Linda McMahon. Why were you there?

"I was there with Linda McMahon and Miss Elizabeth actually. I went there with Vince, Linda, and their PR people. I went to the show at Linda McMahon's request, and I had settled with them I guess that Sunday afternoon in midtown Manhattan and went back to the WWF. She had called me at the hotel that they put me up in Stanford, Connecticut and said it would be an honor if you went to the show with us and we just want you there. I said I didn't want to talk on TV because I don't want to be in the media eye. I just want to move on with my life. She said she just wanted me there because she wanted to see me handle this head on. I got in the limo and went down there at the request of Vince McMahon."

During your lawsuit against the WWF you had people following you and private investigators at your house, and you had to go against the Brooklyn Federal Grand Jury and they wanted you to share every little detail of what was going on.

"I was reading an article the other day online and it did bring a lot of bad memories back. After I had been fired in the summer of 1993 after my initial settlement with the WWF and Linda McMahon and Vince McMahon, they basically prior to me being dismissed in 1993 I went back with them and stuff like federal investigations were still going on. I met with the Brooklyn Grand Jury about two or three times and each time besides being spoken to by federal agents, the WWF and their lawyer Jerry Mcdevit would ask me to shoot information by the federal jury, and they were probing names of people they wanted to speak to at the time. I didn't understand why they were asking me this information so I did share information with the WWF several times. I think later though it got to the point where I would pick up a paper and read that the WWF was suing the New York post for 50 million dollars. I went to Linda McMahon and asked why you were suing Phil and the post, and she said well we have to do what we can to save our company. I said to them that Phil is a very honorable man and I am not gonna let you crucify him. I then told them from there that I am not gonna share anymore information with them about what the government is telling me as I just want a normal life in the WWF, and I surely don't want to be asked every detail of what is going on in my life. Things from there just totally spoiled between me and the WWF, and for instance Vince McMahon and Linda McMahon would not take my phone calls anymore, I wasn't allowed in the back if I was not working that night's event. I was told not to go to Madison Square Garden anymore and many of these things are unheard of if you're in wrestling. They blackballed me out of the company because they knew they couldn't get anymore information out of me."

You settled out of court with Vince McMahon and went back to go to work with the WWF, and your brother really got mad at you. Why is that?

"Well, I settled for two years back pay and I was fine with that because I wanted to believe Vince and Linda McMahon were telling the truth. I really wanted to believe that they wanted to help me, but they were just covering their asses. My brother said to me don't go back there because they are not trustworthy people, and to be honest with you I do realize that my brother was in this whole thing looking for a big payoff which I wasn't in any way. I had lawyers telling me you could get millions and millions of dollars, go all the way with it, but I wanted the right thing to be done and I didn't want to see the WWF to go out of business and people lose their jobs. I met with Linda and Vince and said I would give them a shot and maybe they were telling the truth and didn't know what was happening to me and I said I will go back for the two years' back pay and hope everything works out and it didn't. It truly makes me sad as I was burnt more then once from the WWF."

The WWF sued the New York Post on a story they did on you and later dropped the lawsuit and you had to do a deposition and you were the key witness.

"When the WWF sued the New York Post I told them I would help Phil Mushnick in anyway I can. I was given a subpoena to appear while Phil Mushnick was being deposed by Jerry McDibit the WWF attorney at the time, he still today is the attorney for the WWF. He had me go down there where they were doing the deposition at the law office of the New York Post. He deposed Phil for about five days, and then Jerry Mcdevit and the New York Post lawyer told me that my deposition would take anywhere from five days to two weeks. They asked me questions for an hour that afternoon, and after that I never heard from them again, and they dropped the case against the New York Post. I would like to believe they didn't go on with that suit because they knew if they sued the New York Post they would have to put me on the stands and everything that happened would come out about me and the WWF. I almost bet my life Jerry Mcdevit went back to Vince and Linda, and I bet he said hey we can't have this Tom Cole up on the stands and you probably would be better dropping this suit because if we put him on the stand and he says everything we buried it will come to the surface so let it stay the way it is. If I learned anything from being back there in the WWF that is what pretty much happened."

You were subpoenaed by the government to testify against the WWF while you were working there, but it was about the sex scandal and the steroid trial and everything else.

"The government decided to go after Vince with the steroid thing because they couldn't get anything in the sex scandal and that is where I really lost a lot of fate in the government because I felt if they really cared about what happened to me they would have gone after Mel Phillips. The reason they didn't go after Mel Phillips was because they wanted a big fish. I told them that nobody cares about steroids to these prosecutors because nobody is gonna care about going after Vince for steroids, go after Mel Phillips for what he did. In a sense I was glad to see Vince get off on the steroids because it made me feel like I told you so and telling the federal government they were just like Vince McMahon. They would have loved to get some sexual stuff on Vince McMahon but I guess they couldn't, and they couldn't pin point anything on Vince McMahon so they went on with some steroid charges. They went after Vince McMahon for that and it blew up in the government's face, and I really can't say I wasn't happy that it did."

Marc the Smark
05-25-2005, 01:12 PM
After you filed for unemployment and finished up with the WWF Linda McMahon was actually at your final unemployment hearing. Tell me about that.

"I filed unemployment and they started giving it to me, and Miss Brevity was the WWF's attorney who went to the first four hearings from unemployment and I won each appeal each time they appealed the case. At the final appeal Linda McMahon went and I won that case also. I said to the moderator at the hearing wouldn't you find it kinda ironic that Linda McMahon is here and she runs a company with 300 workers and it is almost a half a billion dollar industry and she is here for a guy who sets up rings and she is at my hearing. Can't you see that it is more to it then that? The people of the State of Connecticut sided with me and said that this was it and there were no more appeals and Linda McMahon was very upset about that. It is like everytime I got the WWF into a legal situation I won hands down, and if I can take anything away from this that makes me feel really good."

Finally, there is a book coming out Sex, Lies, and Headlocks, a story on Vince McMahon. Did Mike Mooneyham let you read your story which is in there?

"I haven't seen the book yet, but I have heard a lot about it. Linda McMahon gave a story to him about eight years ago detailing my employment with the company. I tried to contact Mr. Mooneyham several times over the years to give my side of the story, but he really never got back to me. I really found it very displeasing and a couple days ago I came by an article with an interview he did and he considers Vince McMahon a friend. What really bothered me Linda McMahon said that I really below it the second time around, and she went on to say I was promised a job for life with the WWF which I don't have. They sent me back to college, and they made me sign a piece of paper saying if I failed college I would lose my job with the WWF. This was at the same time I was a federal witness and the WWF asking for information about what was going on with the federal jury. They said I failed school and they fired me. I would ask anyone who was going to college who didn't finish high school and was expected to take college courses during a time they had to sign a paper saying they failed college they would be out of a job. I really never got the chance to take her to task about some of the things she said about me, and in the interview she didn't believe the stuff that happened to me and she said it in such a way that she didn't hold the WWF liable. I was just very disappointed with Mike Mooneyham that he never gave me the chance at least to give my side of the story. I hope that book is more two sided then that story he did with Linda McMahon, but I have yet to read it and am very curious to read it. I did leave a message and email for Mike, and the author called me back and said the book doesn't put me in a bad spot and he believes my story and I just hope the book is very two sided so we shall see what happens."

*Greg Tingle has interviewed Chris Yandek. For the transcript click here