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Wrestling #MeToo #SpeakingOut


Keith Houchen

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10 hours ago, BomberPat said:

It's the timing of Richards' statement that really got me when looking at all that - there apparently wasn't the time or the scope to cancel his booking and rewrite the show, but he either had that ready to go already before the show started, or he was sat backstage at  before his match writing his response to the allegations, and still went out and worked the match after it had been published, and we're expecting that the promoters can plead ignorance?

It's not like OTT deserve the benefit of the doubt, but it would be hard to extend that to any promotion under those circumstances.

I was sat on a train and saw the story breaking, yet people with a professional interest in the wrestler involved, and who were being tagged in conversations about him, didn't know anything until at least an hour after Richards himself had addressed it? Bollocks.

Where I would give OTT some leniency is if this was happening hours before the show, would those running the show even know what was going on? Whenever I’ve been backstage at a show (tiny or big promotion) the people running the show are normally running around being stressed, not looking at their social media feeds. 

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8 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Where I would give OTT some leniency is if this was happening hours before the show, would those running the show even know what was going on? Whenever I’ve been backstage at a show (tiny or big promotion) the people running the show are normally running around being stressed, not looking at their social media feeds. 

Even if they weren't sitting on Twitter I find it hard to believe no one brought it to their attention in any form, whether it was other messaging or directly.

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9 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Where I would give OTT some leniency is if this was happening hours before the show, would those running the show even know what was going on? Whenever I’ve been backstage at a show (tiny or big promotion) the people running the show are normally running around being stressed, not looking at their social media feeds. 

Somebody was Tweeting, and retweeting fans, on the OTT account during the show. Which means someone was monitoring tweets they were tagged in, and tweets using their hashtag. There weren't many, which makes it pretty hard to believe that they didn't see the numerous people tagging them about Davey Richards.

Similarly, while I think the extent to which wrestlers are terminally online and always on their phones is really overstated, at least in BritWres (most wrestlers I know aren't as tuned in to whatever the latest Twitter gossip is as most fans I know), I find it hard to believe nobody at the show saw this stuff happening.

I don't know OTT, but based on the scale of their events, they're not a dog and pony show with one or two people rushing around doing everything. Even if that were the case, they claim to have a code of conduct and accountability, and that can't be worth the paper it's written on it there's no mechanism to get information like this to someone who can act on it.

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Yeah - I'm not pretending it wasn't a difficult situation, and that a promoter put on the spot might panic and not have any idea how to deal with something like that, but if the defence is that OTT didn't know, I don't buy it for a second, particularly given the timing of Davey Richards' own statement.

It's not the first time that OTT have fallen afoul of things like this post-Speaking Out, I believe, though perhaps not on this scale. You'd think under those circumstances you'd hedge your bets and play it safe - I understand why a promoter, having already lost at least two big imports (Moxley and Eddie Kingston were both off the show), might think they still need to deliver on the remaining one, and hope they can get away with pleading innocent after the fact, or just hope that it all gets overlooked and brushed under the carpet.

But I also think there's a difference between "a promoter", and "a promoter of one of the biggest events in European wrestling, who already has a lot of work to do to restore people's trust and their own credibility in matters like this". 

They have a code of conduct - Policies | OTT Wrestling - that covers gross misconduct, including "taking part in activities which result in adverse publicity for OTT, or cause us to lose faith in your integrity", dangerous behaviour, harassment, immoral behaviour, and so on. I think it's pretty clear that what Davey Richards has been credibly accused of is covered by a lot of that language, and the supposed punishment for gross misconduct is dismissal from all shows without notice. That didn't happen - he was allowed to work the show, do a post-match handshake, and then was only pulled from future events after Davey Richards had issued a statement announcing his intentions to retire. So it sounds like the tail wagging the dog - it's not that OTT pulled him from the two subsequent shows, it's that Davey Richards decided not to wrestle and they agreed with him. 

With all that in mind, is any of their safeguarding or code of conduct policies worth the paper its written on? It certainly doesn't look like it.

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15 hours ago, BomberPat said:

So what's the deal with Frankie Mooney then (it's him behind this UK Wrestling Council thing)?

He claims to be an entrepreneur, martial artist, author and hypnotist, which is every conman red flag imaginable before you even get to wrestling. I looked him up and what little coverage I could find is clearly bought and glorified press releases in local 'papers, and mentions of matches with, mostly, nobodies. A couple of people I'd heard of, but checked their Twitter and never saw a mention of him.

Anything I've been able to find is just that he's a nutter and a no-hoper, but is there anything more to it than that?

I've spoken to a couple of people this morning about him Pat. It seems he is your usual British Wrestling mentalist. He does actually try to make money though and is full of a combination of 21st century buzzwords like "Empowerment" with a solid dash of business speak thrown in. Should fit right in to the wrestling business but needs more armbands and pyramid schemes. 

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16 hours ago, BomberPat said:

So what's the deal with Frankie Mooney then (it's him behind this UK Wrestling Council thing)?

He claims to be an entrepreneur, martial artist, author and hypnotist, which is every conman red flag imaginable before you even get to wrestling. I looked him up and what little coverage I could find is clearly bought and glorified press releases in local 'papers, and mentions of matches with, mostly, nobodies. A couple of people I'd heard of, but checked their Twitter and never saw a mention of him.

Anything I've been able to find is just that he's a nutter and a no-hoper, but is there anything more to it than that?

Ran like 2 shows up here 13 years ago claimed for charity. Now everyone on his next show has said they won’t be on it. 

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On 3/19/2023 at 8:20 PM, BomberPat said:

So what's the deal with Frankie Mooney then (it's him behind this UK Wrestling Council thing)?

He claims to be an entrepreneur, martial artist, author and hypnotist, which is every conman red flag imaginable before you even get to wrestling. I looked him up and what little coverage I could find is clearly bought and glorified press releases in local 'papers, and mentions of matches with, mostly, nobodies. A couple of people I'd heard of, but checked their Twitter and never saw a mention of him.

Anything I've been able to find is just that he's a nutter and a no-hoper, but is there anything more to it than that?

He’s the former Kid Krazy. 
Famous for setting the fire alarm off at an early ICW show I believe. 
As well as having his head kicked in by Jim Korderas when he jumped into the ring at the end of a Brock/Big Show match in Aberdeen about 20 years ago. 

An absolute lunatic. 
Basically he met Drew Macdonald once so everyone else doesn’t know how to work and he can shoot on you to prove it.

 

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Didn’t know where to post this but thought it’s still abuse and awful behaviour Gisele Shaw on Rick Steiner. Obviously some replies demand proof before admitting one of their favourites may not be a nice bloke. 

 

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