Battle Of The Sex Offenders: WWE NXT vs. NWA
WWE Nxt vs NWA. Professional Wrestling has its fair share of bad people in the industry, whether that’s wrestlers being bad at their job, or terrible political views, the worst of the worst comes from pro wrestlers who commit crimes and get away with it.
In recent years, namely throughout 2020-2021, a series of bad humans were exposed in what is now infamously known as “The Speaking Out” movement in the pro-wrestling community. This consisted of fans and wrestlers alike, exposing other wrestlers for the horrible things they’ve done in the shadows, mostly consisting of sex crimes. Whether this was verbal/physical abuse, preying on children or full-on rape, it was shocking as a fan to see so many scumbags being exposed in the business.
Though many were exposed and never to be heard of again, somehow, things are still as bad as they were before, with some of the biggest promotions giving the spotlight to some of the worst people.
NWA: Marty Scurll
Marty Scurll is an English professional wrestler who started to make a name for himself in the British wrestling scene. Before we knew it, his name was all over the place, from independent shows in the United States to the biggest promotion in Japan, New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he was a part of the biggest wrestling stable going at that time, Bullet Club. Marty then made his way to Ring Of Honor where he wrestled and helped behind the scenes as a Booker.
In 2020, a 16-year-old female spoke out during the appropriately named speaking out movement, that while attending an IPW show after party, Dan Elder, a promotion worker, was feeding the underage girl drinks all night until she was drunk. Then, she ran into Marty Scurll outside of the venue, where he asked the underage girl to go back to the hotel for sexual activities. She claims to have originally tried to exit the conversation, but when the early thirties-year-old Scurll wouldn’t take no for an answer, one thing led to another and the sexual acts took place.
The young girl claimed to try to get Scurll to stop, and telling him she was still a Virgin, he wouldn’t stop. Due to this, Scurll ended up being fired from Ring Of Honor. Scurll came forward with a statement of his own, saying that the things she claimed did happen that night, but he claims it was consensual. A drunk sixteen-year-old girl can hardly consent to those activities in that state of mind, nonetheless, a grown thirty-plus-year-old man should be smart enough to know this.
Marty Scurll was then barely seen again. Ring Of Honor, New Japan, Bullet Club and nearly almost all other promotions cut ties with him. Randomly throughout the years, Marty Scurll would pop up at a random event in Mexico or a no-named show in the middle of nowhere Ohio. But, fast forward to July 25th, 2023, the National Wrestling Alliance made a tweet that had fans concerned.
NWA currently is a far cry from what it was in the 70s and 80s. From having world champions like Ric Flair and Harley Race to champions like Tyrus in 2023. Despite fans not liking the product of NWA for the past several years, they continued to try with a YouTube show and eventually moved to FITE TV with their NWA Powerrr product. Despite them becoming a joke of a promotion from a booking standpoint, today they’re putting on the clown paint for a whole different reason.
NWA took to Twitter to simply tweet “Whoop Whoop.” Which from a Juggalo, aka a fan of rap group Insane Clown Posse, that means ICP is coming, right? Well, probably not. In wrestling terms, Marty Scurll’s catchphrase is “Whoop Whoop” signifying that NWA is bringing in an entirely different type of clown. Fans quickly jumped all over the tweet, laughing at the insane thought of bringing a sex pest to the promotion, and criticizing their ability to read a room.
While NWA would be the first big-name promotion to bring in Marty Scurll, it would certainly devalue their company more than it already is. Just the mere tweet teasing has backlash spewing their way. Unless they’re actually bringing ICP into their promotion, then FairPlay, but they know what that tweet signifies, and even if they used it as engagement bait, that’s a terrible idea.
It remains to be seen whether or not they’ll bring in the pedophilic Marty Scurll, but if they do, there should be some big backlash coming their way. Making professional wrestling a safe space should be the number one priority, and NWA is making sure that seemingly doesn’t happen.
WWE NXT: Gable Steveson
On the other hand, WWE NXT already has a sex offender on their roster and it’s no secret. But, tonight, as of this writing, he’s being heavily promoted for the upcoming WWE JXT episode. What will Gable Steveson choose? Will he stay in WWE NXT, or will he go after another Gold Medal in Olympic Wrestling? Well, the answer should be neither.
WWE signed former Olympic Wrestling champion Gable Steveson to a contract. He was presented as the next big thing, even bringing him out on stage to be introduced at WrestleMania. He was then drafted to Monday Night RAW, where he made one appearance alongside Kurt Angle before getting sent back down to the WWE Performance centre and NXT.
But, it’s not all sunshine and gold medals for Gable. In June of 2019, Gable Steveson and his Minnesota Wrestling teammate were arrested after the police received a call from the night before about them being involved in the sexual assault of a woman. Both men were suspended from the school wrestling team while the investigation was ongoing.
Six months later after Gable Steveson’s arrest, it was announced he would not face charges due to “inadequate evidence.” Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman noted that alcohol may have been involved in the sexual assault that night. Under Minnesota law, a person that is sexually assaulted while intoxicated isn’t considered “mentally incapacitated” if he or she consumed alcohol or drugs voluntarily. In layman’s terms, if a person drank themselves to a point where they could not contest to sexual activity, they were not considered too impaired to have done so.
In neighbouring Wisconsin, prosecutors have a broad discretion to charge suspects who know or should know that someone’s alcohol consumption can impair his or her ability to consent. People have pushed Minnesota to pass a similar legislation but it has not gone through so far.
Buried deep in the massive public safety bill is a loophole that helped Gable Steveson remain free, saying that unless the alcohol (or drugs) was administered to the person without the person’s agreement, and they willingly drank alcohol, no charges can be made.
Gable Steveson got off free because of the loophole in Minnesota. Otherwise, in any other state, Gable Steveson would be jailed for sexual assault. WWE has continued to ignore the allegations and parade around Gable like he’s some Olympic saviour. Though the United States residents usually support their Olympic Gold Medal winners, the public does not support Gable. In 2021, Minnesota residents protest over the law that kept Gable out of jail.
Now, Gable Steveson continues to be paraded around WWE / WWE NXT as one of their potential next big stars. And from a company as big as WWE, that’s very dangerous for victims now and in the future, showing that if you can get away with being a sex pest, you can still be a big star. Despite all of this, WWE has never said a word about Steveson and continues to turn a blind eye, in turn, supporting a sex offender.
From NWA to WWE NXT and various independent promotions across the world, sex offenders continue to walk free throughout the pro-wrestling world. With these two are put on a pedestal in two separate companies on the same day. Whether it’s promotions not caring and just wanting to make a quick dollar, or fellow wrestlers protecting their friends, it’s time for everyone to put their foot down and get the criminals out of the scene. Disgraceful.
From: Brady Alexander
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