Earlier this week we reported on the #SpeakingOut movement that had swept through the professional wrestling industry after multiple women came forward to reveal they had been victims of abuse and harassment at the hands of several prominent figures within the industry.
Several days later and brave women are still coming forward with their stories. While these allegations are now a matter for the police several wrestling companies, including AEW, WWE and Impact wrestling have also taken matters into their own hands in light of several of their employees being implicated.
Jack Gallagher Fired From WWE
Despite several of WWE's Superstars being implicated, such as Matt Riddle, Jordan Devlin, Sid Scala, Travis Banks and more, the only notable course of action that WWE has taken in response is to release one of their accused talents - Jack Gallagher.
Gallagher was released on Saturday 20th June and did not get wished well in his future endeavours. He was also given the same treatment as Enzo Amore as his entire online presence and history in WWE was wiped off of the website.
It is believed that Gallagher was the only one to be fired, because he was the only Superstar to admit any wrongdoing,
Matt Riddle, Jordan Devlin, Travis Banks and Ligero have all released statements denying the allegations they've been accused of and as such are currently still employed. However, if any of them are arrested they will likely be suspended
Jimmy Havoc and Sammy Guevara Suspended By AEW
AEW also had a handful of their wrestler's implicated by the #SpeakingOut movement but only Jimmy Havoc and Sammy Guevara have been mentioned in the company's current press release responses to the allegations.
They revealed Jimmy Havoc was undergoing rehab and that they would review his status in the company when he's returned,
Sammy Guevara came under fire when past comments he'd made about wanting to 'rape' Sasha Banks surfaced. He has since apologised and Banks herself revealed she'd spoken to Sammy about the comments, but AEW have taken the decision to suspend Sammy as a result.
Impact Wrestling Fires Joey Ryan And Dave Crist And Suspends Michael Elgin
Two of the more accused names were Impact Wrestling's Joey Ryan and Dave Crist, who both received multiple similar allegations from many people, Ryan especially. With that in mind it's certainly no surprise that Impact Wrestling released the following statement concerning the two of them.
IMPACT Wrestling confirms that it has terminated its contracts with Dave Crist and Joey Ryan, effective immediately. In addition, it has suspended Michael Elgin pending further review of allegations of misconduct.
Michael Elgin was also suspended pending a further review, although it is worth pointing out that Elgin has not been suspended for the previous ongoing litigation he had against him by Moses Malone for which he was found not at fault, but for further alleged incidents.
NWA Parts Ways With Dave Lagana
The National Wrestling Alliance also made a major release following the accusations raised against their Vice President, Dave Lagana. Although it's unclear whether or not Lagana voluntarily resigned.
They will now be restructuring their executive management and all future productions are currently on hold, partly due to how crucial Lagana was to the production of the show. However, this is a great indicator of how NWA are taking it.
Elsewhere Independent Companies Including WWE Affiliated Progress Wrestling Make Big Changes
The Knight family. in particular Paige's mother Saraya Knight, who has been accused of bullying behaviour and assault has deleted her Twitter account.
Several other indie promotions have added women to their back office teams or completely restructured the management. WWE affiliated UK independent promotion Progress, for example, has seen a massive restructuring that has ultimately led to it completely shutting down until they're happy it's safe to start again for everyone.
The shock-waves of the #SpeakingOut movement are still being felt in all corners of the industry and are likely to be reverberating for some time to come. Don't be surprised if more suspensions and firings happen and don't be surprised if people are arrested as a result of the police now getting involved.
Hopefully this will be a wake-up call for the industry and practises and procedures that allowed this type of behaviour to happen in the first are burnt to the ground and rebuilt. It seems that these firings and suspensions are a good start, but given the sheer volume of accusations, the problem will need a lot longer to fix.