Vince McMahon’s attorney Jessica Rosenberg reacted to the lawsuit filed yesterday against Vince and Linda McMahon along with WWE concerning the former WWE “Ring Boys.”

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of five former ring boys, alleges negligence for allowing “systemic and pervasive abuse” of underage children.

“More than 30 years ago, the columnist Phil Mushnick tried to make headlines with these same false claims,” Rosenberg said in a statement issued later in the evening. “Those allegations were never proven and ultimately became the subject of a defamation lawsuit against Mr. Mushnick.”

She continued, “The negligence claims against Mr. McMahon that were asserted today rely on these same absurd, defamatory and utterly meritless statements by Mr. Mushnick. We will vigorously defend Mr. McMahon and are confident the court will find that these claims are untrue and unfounded.”

The lawsuit, which was filed by DiCello Levitt and Murphy, Falcon & Murphy, says that the McMahons knew about and did not stop decades of sexual assault, spearheaded by former WWE ring announcer and ring crew boss Melvin Phillips Jr. Phillips, who died in 2012, is said to have hired underage boys, sometimes as young as 12, to assist in setting up the ring, then groomed and abused them.

Terry Garvin and Pat Patterson were also involved in the allegations at the time and were both fired, along with Phillips. The story became public in 1992.