Photo: instagram
She was 10 days short of her 40th birthday.
By Samantha Maffucci — Written on May 17, 2019
Over the years, we’ve lost a number of WWE entertainers and professionals, all of them tragic. In 2007, Chris Benoit murdered his wife and son before killing himself, and in 2006, Eddie Guerrero died from heart failure.
Though there have been many other deaths over the years, most recently, we said goodbye to WWE wrestler and model, Ashley Massaro, at just 39 years old. Her 40th birthday would have been 10 days later, on May 26th.
How did Ashley Massaro die? On May 16th, Massaro was found in her home in Long Island, New York, and rushed to the hospital. According to dispatch audio, a “rescue call” came in at 5:23 AM, indicating she was unconscious.
Paramedics performed CPR on the way to the hospital, but she passed away. Though many outlets reported that the cause of death is unknown, WWE Diva Rochelle Loewen confirmed on Instagram that it was suicide.
“I’m shocked and devastated by Ashley Massaro’s passing. She was supposed to be here in Vegas on this girls trip (which I’m on right now). We spoke yesterday. She said she was coming. Now, she’s gone. I’m at a loss. I don’t know how to process this quite yet. I miss you Ashely. I miss you already babe. We spoke no more than 24 hours ago,” she wrote.
According to HollywoodLife, she initially used hashtags for “depression,” “suicide,” and “I didn’t understand,” though it appears they have since been deleted.
In a statement to HollywoodLife, the Suffolk County Police Department said, “I can confirm that she has passed and has died and that she was 39 and that she was from Smithtown, but I can not confirm any other details because we don’t have them. And since it was considered a non-criminal death, we will not have them. We normally don’t release that info for non-criminal deaths.”
So, while we can speculate that she passed from suicide, an official autopsy still needs to be performed.
WWE tweeted a tribute to Massaro on Thursday night:
Throughout her career, Massaro made a name for herself starting in 2005, when she won the WWE Raw Diva Search. Shortly after, she became a valet (defined in wrestling as “a person, usually an attractive female, who accompanies a male performer to the ring; usually serves to titillate or agitate the crowd, or to interfere in the match) for the Paul London and Brian Kendrick, a WWE tag team. She’s perhaps most known for her matches against Melina Perez and a Lumberjill match at WrestleMania XXIV.
She appeared in Playboy in 2003 and 2004, and was on the cover in 2007. Massaro also competed on Survivor: China, and guest starred on Smallville and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. She eventually left WWE in 2008.
The night before she passed away, Massaro posted on Twitter, showing all the fan mail she had answered and sent responses to:
In two weeks, she was supposed to attend an event at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, and promoted the event on her page.
She’s survived by her daughter, Alexa, 18.
Samantha Maffucci is an editor for YourTango who focuses on writing trending news and entertainment pieces. In her free time, you can find her obsessing about cats, wine, and all things Vanderpump Rules.