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#SpeakingOut: Industry-wide sexual misconduct (assault/harrassment/grooming/etc) accusations and their repercussions


KawadaSmile

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Not commenting on the content but the form of this video is a bit, I don't know, tone deaf? If you want to do a public apology and come across sincere, I would not recommend using your promo voice. Also starting with "I'm Mike Quackenbush" and then go on about this has nothing to do with the fake world or pro wrestling storylines is also not the best idea.

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4 hours ago, Robert S said:

Not commenting on the content but the form of this video is a bit, I don't know, tone deaf? If you want to do a public apology and come across sincere, I would not recommend using your promo voice. Also starting with "I'm Mike Quackenbush" and then go on about this has nothing to do with the fake world or pro wrestling storylines is also not the best idea.

It reminded me of those videos that leaked from the PC of trainees cutting promos for class.

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5 hours ago, Tenese Sarwieh said:

That felt more like a audition for a movie than a heartfelt apology.

 

35 minutes ago, cactus said:

Him talking about people exposing their genitals in his promo voice felt like something out of a dark comedy. 

Agreed on both lmao. Absolutely hilarious 

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Do we know if he has a promo voice vs. real voice? This is the way he always sounds.

This guy had his life's work ripped away all in the matter of a few days so probably hard to judge how much of this was him being mentally & emotionally distraught vs. actual sorrow.  He seems to be one to try to overexplain.  From dialog I saw elsewhere, it seems like most think it was a bad idea for his editor to edit this as it made it come across more stagey.

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Yeah it's not like this was some sort of tragic thing that happened to him, dude just finally had to pay the bill for his past behavior. I get there is going to be some shock since by and large people who act like that tend to get away with it so long it's natural to start to believe it will never catch up with you.  

Most of the time if there's any sorrow it's more "I'm sorry I got caught" rather than "I'm sorry I did shitty things".

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I haven't cross-checked the allegations against him, but what stood out to me was how he would preface every "allegation" (stressing this word, too) by stating he had no knowledge of this happening and trying to distance himself from complicity while robotically postfacing his explanations with how those coming out are entitled to their feelings. 

It felt like the most lawyerlike way of calling the allegations bullshit.

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6 hours ago, Rah said:

I haven't cross-checked the allegations against him, but what stood out to me was how he would preface every "allegation" (stressing this word, too) by stating he had no knowledge of this happening and trying to distance himself from complicity while robotically postfacing his explanations with how those coming out are entitled to their feelings. 

It felt like the most lawyerlike way of calling the allegations bullshit.

And how often did he say that he gives the "accuser" the "benefit of a doubt"?

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So April Hunter did an interview with Observer Radio about being a woman in the wrestling business, and she dropped a bomb that when she did a training camp for WWE back in 2002, she was offered a deal but it was contingent on her breaking up with her boyfriend because A) they wanted the women to be available and B ) they didn't want to finance an interracial relationship (her significant other/tag team partner at the time was Slyck Wagner Brown who is from Jamaica).  She said people would ask her all the time why she never went to WWE because she had the size and look Vince usually went for, and mentioned she sat on the reason all this time because she figured if she said why it would just be looked at as sour grapes.

 

She also laid out why it really wasn't an option for women to speak out, as she and other women were trained to always defer to the veterans. She mentioned she had an issue with someone when she was on a tour, and she knew if she spoke out and said there was a problem that she would be the one being removed from the tour, not the guy. Basically if women wanted to work in the business, they had to just expect to put up with it. 

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4 minutes ago, sek69 said:

So April Hunter did an interview with Observer Radio about being a woman in the wrestling business, and she dropped a bomb that when she did a training camp for WWE back in 2002, she was offered a deal but it was contingent on her breaking up with her boyfriend because A) they wanted the women to be available and B ) they didn't want to finance an interracial relationship (her significant other/tag team partner at the time was Slyck Wagner Brown who is from Jamaica). 

Pimping ain't easy. Really, that's the first thing that come to my mind. I mean, "available" for WHAT ? And.... "finance" a relationship ? WHAT ? Not to mention the obvious elephant in the room here in term of racism.

7 minutes ago, sek69 said:

She also laid out why it really wasn't an option for women to speak out, as she and other women were trained to always defer to the veterans. She mentioned she had an issue with someone when she was on a tour, and she knew if she spoke out and said there was a problem that she would be the one being removed from the tour, not the guy. Basically if women wanted to work in the business, they had to just expect to put up with it. 

Honestly none of the women in WWE has really talked yet (and probably won't). I mean, those stories about Randy Orton hazing and harassing women should have resurfaced, right ?

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I mean, when you see how WWE has on numerous occasions tried to break up couples they didn't "agree" with it kind of makes it obvious who they want the women to be available for. 

Also for the "financing" part,  I assume they didn't want to have the money they would be paying her go towards her relationship. It came off as a weird way to coerce her into doing what they wanted. 

Clearly things have improved in the years since, they've shuffled people across brands to keep IRL couples together among other things. Things are obviously far from perfect but it does make me wonder how much having someone like Steph in power and generally a more corporate structure in place since 2002 that have helped foster some must needed changes.  Or is it more that the guy who demanded all this "availability" is in his 70s now and maybe it isn't as important at this stage of his life as it was 20 odd years ago.

The answer is probably "a little of both".

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Eh, I don't know. I feel like if we were to get shoot interviews from a lot of the current crop of female talent, if they weren't still currently employed by WWE, or had nothing to lose, we would still get some whoppers today from WWE. Like, I can't imagine that women like Liv or Mandy Rose or Sasha Banks aren't getting sexually harassed on the daily, at a minimum. I imagine it's still a lot worse than most of us would like to readily admit. 

As long as motherfuckers like Michael P.S. Hayes are still gainfully employed, I refuse to believe that the culture has improved behind the scenes.

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It's probably still awful, yet at the same time also probably light years better than what it was in the Attitude Era and the early 2000s when the only place for women was lingerie pillow fights and bikini contests. 

Reading Gail Kim's comments on working there was heartbreaking, how she trained just like the men but her only worth there was cheesecake stuff. Then she goes to TNA, which famously had problems finding their ass as a company with both hands, and she ends up revitalizing women's wrestling in the US there. 

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So another issue that is starting to bubble up seem to be folks in MLW uncomfortable with Mister Saint Laurent (the COO) and his ties with Chaysn Rance.

Saieve Al Sabah went public after finding out about it (after he signed) and requested his release, then shared a convo with Brian Pillman Jr where he mentioned he also requested his release but didn't get it.

 

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