Former WWE Writer Matt Mazany Reflects On Trying To Change WWE's Culture

Former WWE Writer Matt Mazany has opened up on his time in WWE, noting that he worked hard to move the creative away from instances of fat-shaming and other negatives.

Mazany worked for WWE between 2016-2017 and noted that there were times within the company that caused some real conflict within himself, as he tried to influence the culture from the inside.

Speaking during an appearance on Reconcile the Aisle on Radio Misfits, Mazany said: "There is a culture there that is in some ways has gotten better, in some ways has ever changed. But there's a culture there that is kind of like bullying and that has happened there before. I personally haven't run into too much of it, some of it but not in a not in ways that other people have. So I can only speak to my experience.

"In the storylines, you kind of do have to run in that stuff. The one thing about storylines in wrestling is that there are, you know, a lot of archetypes and you're like, this person is bad. This person is good. Sometimes the reasons why somebody is bad or why somebody is good is maybe a little dated. So those old school ideas of like what makes a bad guy bad is still kind of around so I mean there were some times in there where I had to go like you know ‘Hey, is the reason why they're making fun of you know this person is because they happen to be you know a large individual is or is it is because they're being bad?’

"You kind of got to play those Moses motives there. I think at its core wrestling is — at its best wrestling is kind of reinforcing morality plays. So you want to make sure that the bad guys are bad for the right reasons that the good guys are good for the right reasons.

"There was enough space where I could get the things that I wanted to do and didn't have to be on the things I didn't want to be on that way. There were other writers that were fine with writing if the storylines are that way. But I think it's worth speaking up about it. Because like, that's the only way cultures change in those places. I think that like, you kind of got to do it, and it's hard to do, because it's like, there was a time when I was there was when Charlottesville happened and there wasn't anything in the room that we were doing anything about that or anything like that. But it was just the fact that I knew Vince McMahon had given like 6 million bucks, personal money, to Donald Trump at the time.

"All these things tied together. I said, ‘Should I even be working for this company?’ Do I feel good about working for this company? I talked to my partner at the time about it. She told me that it was like, ‘Yes, it's bad that you're with that company, but it's probably better that you're in the company so you can influence the way certain things went.’

"I did my best to watch out for fat-shaming in the room, because like, that's something that in the wrestling culture, Vince grows up with like, guys have incredible bodies, right? Like, they're all in incredible shape. But every once in a while you'll get an athlete that just happens to be kind of like portly, but they're still incredible athletes. But then one of the gimmicks they get like, Oh, he's eating a sandwich all the time or something like that. So I could make influences in there trying to push things a certain way.

"But it's hard because nobody likes to be the squeaky wheel. Nobody likes to stand out in that way. But I tried to do that. There was a story somebody told me after the fact, where somebody was saying some stuff, they shouldn’t have said about whatever, and I and I jumped in it just started ripping them for it. Then they told that story. I was like, ‘I forgot that I did that.’ But I was glad I did. I was like, okay, good. I'm glad I stood up at certain points and said the right things."

H/T Fightful