Pro Wrestling News: Broken Ring Wrestling issues statement and apologizes for behavior; charity event goes ahead

This Saturday the Broken Ring Wrestling show that was advertised at the Royal Hall in Harrogate did in fact go ahead, despite controversy leading up to the event and several of the wrestlers advertised pulling out.

Broken Ring Wrestling posted the following on Twitter.

What a night... wow.Raised lots of money for charity.Partied with the sponsor's. Set a great standard. Thanks to you all involved in creating such a buzz... :)Next show here we come. pic.twitter.com/isalJ9djDD

— Broken Ring Wrestling (@ring_broken) September 14, 2019

I contacted the venue and asked if they could confirm that they went ahead. The venue confirmed that th did and around 250 people attended. This is good news because it means that despite the controversy the children of High Park School will still be receiving some money as the event was initially intended to raise money for them.

I reached out to High Park and the head confirmed that "they were very grateful for the money that Broken Ring Wrestling has raised for High Park." A final figure has not been revealed yet, but any money going to a good cause is a good thing.

This whole event stemmed from what was considered to be inappropriate behaviour from the promoter towards two female wrestlers booked for the show - Jayde and Chakara, who took to Twitter to spotlight what they perceived to be troubling behavior.

Many people agreed and started to call out BRW which led to the promoter for Broken Ring Wrestling, Thomas Johnson then getting themselves into even more trouble with a series of controversial tweets that many people considered offensive and unnecessary due to their references to sexual assault, cancer and suicide.

Johnson did issue an apology on Twitter for his behaviour in responding to people, but it has subsequently been deleted.

Broken Ring Wrestling's apology for tweets about sexual assault, suicide and cancer.

I also reached out to Johnson for a statement and he explained his side of the story in relation to his behavior towards Jayde and Chakara,

Daniel,

We require all contact details and NoK details from all of our performers, regardless of gender. This is for several reasons, the main for emergency contact.

On the evening in question I asked four performers for phone numbers, as I had the rest of the roster. 2 male 2 female.

Two people refused without good reason, I attempted to explain the situation, emergency contact only ect. This was met with further hostility and non logical arguments. They pulled of the charity event just 72 hours away. I found this to be a relief, if they cant be trusted to follow a simple safeguarding standard, I can't trust them to perform to the standard required safely. I found all of this to be extremely combative and unbecoming of a professional wrestler. You honour your bookings and follow safety guidelines.

Not at any point was I abusive, combative, insulting, swearing or harassing towards either performer. Any claim made as such, is a cheap attempt to mask unprofessional behaviour with undeserving victim-hood status.

We here at Broken Ring Wrestling pride ourselves on taking every precaution possible to protect your performers and staff. We hold all our staff to the same standard, regardless of who they are.

I do have all the conversations on file. If you contact me on messenger I can send them to you, no edits, with the upmost urgency.

Thomas

I also received the text message conversations that took place between Johnson and Jayde/Chakara in, although they do not fully explain Johnson's perceived problematic behaviour at the beginning, they do show that he does try to explain his need for their contact details after his initial requests for them were politely turned down by the women involved.

It's important to remember that this whole event has had a positive outcome, both for High Park School and for the British wrestling scene in opening up questions about acceptable behaviour between promoters and wrestles and helping to make everything more transparent.

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