Every now and then a story breaks surrounding the wrestling industry that hints at the darker side of the business, but you always get the impression that these instances are just the tip of the iceberg.
However, the outing of David Starr as a sexual predator has led to the advent of the #SpeakingOut movement, which serves as the wrestling industry's #MeToo. There has subsequently been an avalanche of horrifying accusations raised with over seventy wrestlers, promotion owners, and other wrestling industry personnel being accused.
The sheer number of alleged incidents and victims that have bravely come forward during this movement has been staggering. It's clear that there is a systemic problem within the wrestling industry of people abusing their positions of power and influence and of complicit acceptance that these things are 'normal'.
This is evidenced by the fact that the accusations touch almost every major wrestling company in the world with stars from WWE, Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, AEW, and NWA all being included by brave people finally speaking out about their abuse.
A small group of women including retired independent wrestler Sierra Loxton and British wrestling commentator Leanne-Marie have been coordinating the movement and have been encouraging and supporting victims as they reveal what happened to them. They've also provided a platform for victims to talk about their abuse anonymously.
It's worth noting that the accusations at this point are all alleged and they vary from harassment and predatory behavior to emotional and physical abuse to sexual assault and rape.
However, Leanne-Marie has indicated that efforts are being made to collate the accusations and any evidence there is and that the police are involved.
I have reached out to several of the victims to ask if they'd be willing to go on the record for this article and I want to thank those that gave permission to include their recounting of the abuse they suffered.
Tori was one of the first to come forward to detail abuse she had received from prominent independent wrestler David Starr. Since then several others have come forward with similar stories.
Mariah May has detailed the abuse she suffered from WWE NXT UK onscreen talent and wrestler Sid Scala, again others have now detailed similar abuse.
Sierra Loxton, who has been crucial in organizing the movement has also revealed she suffered harassment from another NXT UK star, Joe Coffey.
Rebecca Crow has bravely opened up about the emotional abuse she was subjugated to during a relationship with AEW star Jimmy Havoc.
Ziggy has talked about some of the things that happened to her at the hands of Impact Wrestling's David Crist,
These are only a handful of the accusations that have been made public in the last couple of days. The other accusations are not included above as the victims were either not contactable or did not want their tweets directly shared in the article.
However, there are many more WWE stars that have been implicated in varying levels of abuse and harassment such as Matt Riddle, Jordan Devlin, Ligero, Travis Banks, and Jack Gallagher.
New Japan Pro Wrestling's Will Ospreay and AEW's Bea Priestly have been implicated in forcing a victim out of the industry after she accused one of their friends. AEW's Marty Scurll, NWA's Dave Lagana and wrestling personality Jim Cornette, as well as Ring of Honor's Jay Letha and Impact Wrestling's Joey Ryan have also all been implicated.
The #SpeakingOut movement is ultimately looking to create a huge change in the wrestling industry to change the complicit acceptance of this behavior and install practices and procedures that prevent the situations that allow this abuse to happen. Many of the victims were wrestling trainees at wrestling schools abused by people who were in positions of power over them, for example.
It already seems that some change is happening as several British wrestling promotions, which is where the majority of the accused originate from and work for, have come out to say they are cutting ties with the accused. Others are organizing support groups and governing bodies to help encourage victims to come forward and provide oversight and regulation.
WWE has also released the following statement concerning the allegations leveled specifically towards Jordan Devlin and then further clarified it applied to the allegations concerning all employees currently working for them. It has been reported that NXT UK has held an emergency meeting to discuss the subject.
“We take any allegation of this nature very seriously and are looking into the matter.”
It's been a dark couple of days for the wrestling industry in general, but hopefully, this momentum continues and the industry is positively changed and made safer for everybody as a result. It's just an overwhelming and appalling price to get this point for the victims.