Wrestling #MeToo #SpeakingOut

[Thunderplex]

On 11/10/2021 at 9:07 AM, BomberPat said:

they told him he was going to wear a red, white and blue hood, and he asked if he could skip the red and blue as he already had a white one at home. 

That made me chuckle for a good 10 minutes!

[Keith Houchen]

I’m sure he showed Billionaire Tone some texts and he was alright with it. 

 

[IANdrewDiceClay]

30 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

I’m sure he showed Billionaire Tone some texts and he was alright with it. 

Don Callis was in the main event managing the champion. A man who left his post as Impact head because of ALLEGED sexual harrassment towards a recently released WWE female, who was there at the time. They obviously dont give a fuck, sadly.

[Nick James]

Wrestling will always be wrestling, regardless of its current guise. The whole business is rotten to the core, regardless of how it may seem at the surface or who may be spearheading the current trend.

[pol_pot_rick]

So Lethal coming in pretty much confirms that Marty will be showing up at some point too right, what with being mates with the Elite and married to Deeb

[Carbomb]

I didn't know Lethal had been #MeToo-ed. Bloody hell.

[Hannibal Scorch]

5 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

I didn't know Lethal had been #MeToo-ed. Bloody hell.

Nor me. And I’d love to see Keith’s folder where he keeps all this information because there’s a lot of accusations and I struggle to remember them all (except the big ones like Marty, because you know, underage rape).

I honestly don’t know what the answer is to this in general. How do you clean up an industry that’s been this filthy for decades? Who gets to decide if someone is let off because the allegations are not as sever as others? It’s all a mess.

[air_raid]

5 hours ago, Nick James said:

Wrestling will always be wrestling, regardless of its current guise. The whole business is rotten to the core, regardless of how it may seem at the surface or who may be spearheading the current trend.

Wrestling is so poisonous and will always be wrestling that even Max Landis who insisted that Wrestling Isnt Wrestling turned out to be a wrong un.

[Hannibal Scorch]

So one of Lethal’s accusers, Kelly Klein, is married to BJ Whitmer who is now an agent at AEW.

[tiger_rick]

Didn't know (or remember) about the Lethal allegation either. What a seriously depressing cloud hanging over one of my favourite wrestling PPVs of all the times.

I didn't give a shiny shite when he turned up either. Not suggesting that the answer to all this is to blacklist the crap talent and give a pass to the better ones but when considering hiring someone with a shady past, I'd definitely be asking myself if it's worth the grief you're going to get and this is clearly a no. 

I don't think anyone who has an accusation against them should be automatically shitcanned either because that wouldn't be right if someone is falsely accused but I'd still  think that if there's serious doubt and no benefit then I'll err on the side of caution.

[DavidB6937]

I had absolutely no idea, or at least no recollection, of anything Lethal related. I wouldn't have been curious about him post-ROH if I'd been clearer on that situation. Very surprised they bothered to sign him in 2021 under that cloud.

[Devon Malcolm]

I understand, to a degree, how torn a lot of AEW fans might be with the signing of Jay Lethal, even though he's far from the only person on that roster with a problematic (to say the least) background. By the standards of mainstream wrestling, AEW *is* progressive in a number of ways but compared to most other things in society, it's an appalling set-up in terms of its hiring practices.

People want to support the promotion because in their eyes they've been starved of a decent mainstream wrestling promotion for a number of years and it is possible to support something whilst also flagging up its questionable aspects. As someone who supports United, I've had this with them re-signing Ronaldo recently. It is possible to support and criticise at the same time.

But at the same time, there are tons of wrestling promotions these days. And with so many offering live streaming and easy access to their product, there's no reason to keep supporting a company if you're upset by them signing Lethal and so on. I don't know if it's comparable to departing from your support of a sports team if they sign a player with a questionable background, but I question anyone who remains supporting the company just because they're putting out a 'great product'. The sign there being that if they were churning out shite every week, it would be a better excuse to leave. That seems to be the way many people have gone with WWE and that's an approach that doesn't sit right with me at all.

I only keep an eye on AEW's results and watch the odd clip on YouTube so I'm not especially invested in the product, or today's wrestling as a whole for that matter, but on the Jay Lethal / Taeler Hendrix front, these back-to-back tweets Hendrix posted just made me feel awful for her. Imagine being excited to sit down and watch a show and then you see that news appear in front of you regarding who they've signed. I hope what little she said here made an impact on people.

[Infinity Land]

11 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

AEW *is* progressive in a number of ways but compared to most other things in society, it's an appalling set-up in terms of its hiring practices.

 

Only because they exist with a public profile. Most other companies hire convicted sex offenders & abusers every day and because they don't work in protected work environments those convictions don't get disclosed. Your postie, supermarket worker, or taxi driver could have quite the rap sheet.

And unfortunately we know that people with convictions represent a minority of abusers.

[tiger_rick]

2 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

But at the same time, there are tons of wrestling promotions these days. And with so many offering live streaming and easy access to their product, there's no reason to keep supporting a company if you're upset by them signing Lethal and so on. I don't know if it's comparable to departing from your support of a sports team if they sign a player with a questionable background, but I question anyone who remains supporting the company just because they're putting out a 'great product'. The sign there being that if they were churning out shite every week, it would be a better excuse to leave. That seems to be the way many people have gone with WWE and that's an approach that doesn't sit right with me at all.

This is a good post and sums things up nicely for me. It tears at me. It always has. I love wrestling. I have done since I was 3 or 4 years old. Won't go into my life story but things have been very hard at times, as a kid and as an adult, and loving Wrestling and Football always kept me happy and healthy throughout. It's always where my mind has gone when things were hard, watching it, thinking about it, reading, listening or even writing and making up games about it (when I was a kid!) There are times I've really needed it. It's hard to give it up. Numerous times I've stopped watching current wrestling but never stopped watching old stuff, despite the people involved being a fuckload worse than Jay Lethal.

I don't love Indy wrestling, Japanese, death match or any alternative. Never have and never will. I love big-time American wrestling. I loved WWF, WCW, ECW a bit, TNA at times and now AEW. I don't like everything about them but I've put much, much worse than this to one side to continue to support WWE in some form through the years until the straw broke the camel's back and a lot of that was selfish, I appreciate.

I'm not blind to anything. But I'm not going to lie and pretend I won't watch on Wednesday because Jay Lethal may be a complete dirtbag. That I ever spent money on WWE again after Owen Hart tears me up far more.

[The Gaffer]

It is indeed a great post, as is your response.

I suppose from my side of it - in addition to also only really enjoying big time American wrestling - I'm hedging my bets on AEW being worthy custodians and preservers of the mainstream wrestling landscape now. A filthy landscape, but it's a somewhat progressive company within that landscape who I still - and I'm open to the fact that this is morally questionable - put a bit of faith in to do the right things. 

I don't know, it's kind of tricky to explain. Is it? I love that style of wrestling presentation and I figure here for the first time in years we have a well backed collective who are making it better. And whilst they'll put their foot in it plenty more times along the way, there still seems for me to be an impetus to support them in the hopes that they'll grow in awareness to some of this jobs for the boys shit. 

There's potential for further change, essentially, and giving them backing seems conducive to that change. Would the climate be far worse off for the talent if they went bust in the morning? You betcha.