Author Matthew Randazzo V released a quote from former WWE creative team member and See No Evil author Dan Madigan regarding suspended WWE vice president Michael Hayes. "To be 100 percent honest, although I heard some pretty racy stuff in the back room, I acutally heard Michael Hayes tell the writing staff to lay off some of the racial stuff about WWE writer Dr. Ranjan Chhibber, and that is the gospel truth. I remember because we were in Canada, Ranjan's home country.

"Hayes was sitting on a couch near the door in our makeshift writer's room and he told some people that maybe they should take it easy with the racial remarks about him [which were common backstage at the time]. Do I think he is a racist? I don't know, but in that business certain terms are used in various contexts, but that is what I heard once and that is the truth."

Randazzo's book Ring of Hell will be released in hardcover on July 15. Pre-order is available at Amazon.com.

Powell's POV: It's nice that Hayes showed some restraint in this case, but that doesn't change the fact that he's used racial slurs repeatedly throughout his tenure in WWE. What's important here is that a former WWE writer has stated on the record that racial remarks were common backstage. That type of behavior would not be tolerated by the rest of corporate America, yet for some reason Vince McMahon allowed it in his company.

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