Felix Upton on July 14, 2020
AEW saw two stars called out in the #SpeakingOut movement. Both Jimmy Havoc and Sammy Guevara were suspended for very different reasons and are seeking help with their issues.
Guevara made insensitive comments on a podcast years ago that resurfaced. His status with AEW will be addressed when he completes sensitivity training. Jimmy Havoc had much heavier allegations come out about him. His status with the company will be addressed following completion of rehab.
While speaking to the New York Post, Tony Khan opened up about those suspensions. Both Havoc and Guevara had much different situations, but they each needed help which AEW was able to provide for them.
“I suspended them both. Very different situations. I just needed to address both. We are addressing both. I think Jimmy really needed the counseling. If and when he were to wrestle again, the most important thing for himself and everybody here is that he sought treatment and counseling. When he asked for that help, we’re gonna help him.”
“With Sammy, I think the right thing to do was to suspend him. The comments he made were horrible. I can’t defend them. I can’t even comment on them because they’re unspeakably bad. He has also done a different kind of counseling and he’s in a different kind of counseling and it’s a different kind of coaching. Everybody here, male and female pretty much up and down the roster we talked to felt like Sammy had no history of this kind of behavior. Really people were shocked Sammy had said that.”
“Certainly, it’s an old clip. I think the video was four years old. I had never seen that video and it’s something I would have addressed with him before Sammy started here. I never had an opportunity to address it because I didn’t know it existed and neither did anybody else or if they did nobody told us. For both of them, we really needed to address the situation before talking about what to do in the future afterward. I didn’t want to rush into making a decision on either person, so it felt like until I had all the facts suspending was the right thing to do. Then I could make whatever the right decision is. I knew the right decision wasn’t for those guys to just come to TV and not address this stuff.”
Cody Rhodes said that Sammy Guevara will be back in AEW. He also said that Guevara will be a better man because of it. We are still waiting to see what the verdict is regarding Jimmy Havoc.
The #SpeakingOut movement shed a light on parts of the pro wrestling industry that were kept in the shadows for far too long. Hopefully, actions like suspending Guevara and Havoc will not become commonplace for AEW.
July 14, 2020 3:24 pm
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