*Title history comprised on 6/19/20. Intro started on 6/22/20.
Wrestling made the last weekend pretty awkward for me. It sucked because I had to process the entire #SpeakingOut not because I felt betrayed by any wrestler. I felt it was just started unfairly. Since I may be empathizing with a potential predator, does that make me an awful person and a hypocrite. The timing of this and me writing content may lead to you deciding that. Here is to coming out the other side and being better for it.
I have written about #MeToo and wrestling on numerous occasions. My first opinion pieces were about COVID-19 denier Ian Rotten and IWA-Midsouth downplaying Michael Elgin's covering for one of his students assaulting a woman and the IWA-MS supporters condoning such actions. It was in March of 2018, so five months after we started hoping Harvey Weinstein would be locked up. These posts discussed how Rotten would still book Elgin because no one deserves to be cancelled, and how I thought it was fair and that time and Elgin's use of the time will determine a return. Get this man a scarlet "A" at the very least.
When I was a Patreon to "The Wrestling Compadres Slamcast", their hotline was used by me to express my displeasure with the Impact Wrestling coverage and positive opinion when they had hired Rich Swann, who had been arrested for domestic battery, and Elgin who, at the most, was a year removed from his infamy. That portion of my call was cut for either allowing me to get out a Targaryen amount of titles (The Student of the Game, Podcat's Favorite Caller, the Concise Contrarian...the Double-Dipping Dandy) or for lighter portions of the call. There was not much support for my stance then and Facebook let me know that. The reaction was much like that of my so called friends did after my July 2015 blog, "Racism Can Play in Peoria. What About Your Local Wrestling". Sometimes it sucks to ahead of the game on social change (in the Heart of Illinois).
Some of those who were upset about me attacking the Confederate flag's perceived meaning may tell you that I was ahead of the game in terms of Rich Swann's indescretions. Perhaps I should be silent since I had been arrested over a domestic dispute. If things were fair, I should have been cancelled before I went on to become the Peoria's lone trained professional wrestler.
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My innocence was not in doubt to my colleagues and family, and the other party's source on income wrongfully discredited her. Bite marks on my back and a broken nose did not help her case against me. From a karma standpoint, if I was guilty of anything, the next closest friend I had forced me into bankruptcy by holding the memory of my best friend over me for heroin. It lead to the circumstances that fueld my depression which stopped my three-day a week pursuit of indie-wrestling glory, so who is to say that it did not cancel me?
Social media was not around to cancel me, but I was out $2,500 in legal fees to not have the charges pursued and to have the arrest expunged, I spent two nights in the Peoria County Jail, and I lost my booking for the weekend. It may be argued that I got punished more than anyone facing accusations in the #SpeakingOut movement. We just got to be better and encourage addressing the issues sooner.
Sadly we are not at that point, and we maybe decades from there. So the confusion comes to how we speak out. The movement is great, but again my issue is how it started. At least through typing this, I am getting a further understanding of my feelings. Hopefully, I can wrap this up in the next post. But now to the pandering and a reason some will just scroll past my attempt to be enlightened.
The 15th Disgruntled's Real Women's World Champion:
AJWPW's Manami Toyota (12/4/1995 to (12/8/1996)
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