Heading into a busy day of wrestling, there was an opening on one of the major cards happening on Sat., Aug. 31. New Japan’s Royal Quest show in London had a spot for the winners of a tournament held by their United Kingdom partner promotion, Revolution Pro Wrestling, to challenge the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team champs, Guerrillas of Destiny.
The tourney finals were held on Fri., Aug. 30, at RevPro’s annual Summer Sizzler event. Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) defeated RPW tag champs Josh Bodom & Sha Samuels to advance to Royal Quest, and that was apparently the plan all along. But the finish came earlier than planned when Bodom didn’t kick out of an earlier pinfall spot and referee Aaren Wilde counted three.
Samuels improvised to cover for the mix up, slamming Wilde in the ring. The referee rolled out, and it was there that Bodom continued the beatdown.
It doesn’t sound terribly unusual. It apparently didn’t seem that unusual to fan in attendance or RevPro officials as it wasn’t discussed until Wilde sent a series of tweets on Fri, Sept. 7 which read:
“Last weekend at RevPro I was attacked after the Royal Quest tag match. This was not part of the show, it was not planned. I was grabbed and slammed to the mat by Sha and then something happened on the outside. I honestly don’t know what, that part was a blur.
As a result, I have sustained a much-more-serious-than-originally-thought neck and shoulder injury that means I am no longer able to referee. I hate the term ‘retire’, so I’ll say this; I am indefinitely unable to referee due to medical restrictions.
The intended winners (Aussies) still won, albeit 5 minutes quicker on a show that ran over by 45 minutes. I am still shocked, upset and in disbelief at why this happened and why it had been condoned by RevPro/Andy Quildan.
500+ matches, 1 botched ending. That one.
I have spent the last 7/8 days in many feelings. Anger, sadness, frustration. I truly adored performing as a referee ad now at least for the foreseeable future, I am medically unable to do so. I truly hope I can recover to pursue it again.
There are so many things that can be said about last weekend, but I would prefer to not write an essay of negativity. For now I am also unable to football referee (my main income) due to the injury.
If you have a few spare pennies, I won’t say no: PayPal.me/OfMiceAndMoveZ
Thank you for a wonderful few years in professional wrestling. I am distraught that it had to end this way. Support promotions that value performer and spectator welfare: @RIPTIDEwres, @ThisIs_Progress, @FutureShockWres that I know of.
I’ll be back when I mentally can be.”
Samuels & Bodom initially responded in kayfabe, insulting the promotion, the referee & the fans, and calling the incident “the York Hall screwjob”. RevPro promoter Andy Quidlan tweeted he’d didn’t learn about Wilde’s issues until his tweets, and that after speaking to him and reviewing their live cam footage, he didn’t see any “intent to cause injury”. Quidlan did say he’d continue to look into the situation and deal with the matter swiftly, actions which may have been spurred on when this fan shot footage started making the Twitter rounds:
— Alex Dellanzo (@ADellanzo1) September 8, 2019
On Saturday (Sept. 8), RevPro issued the following statement:
“In light of allegations shared by referee Aaren Wilde we would like to make an official statement on the incident.
We stress that we had no contact from Aaren throughout the week and had any of these allegations & the severity of them been presented to us prior to the series of tweets presented yesterday we would have made immediate action. Whilst some may see our silence as damning we felt it important that we gathered all facts before coming to a conclusion and presenting to you our results. We hope you can respect that fact.
This is not something that was ever going to be dragged out and whilst we had reached these conclusions this morning we wanted to communicate with Aaren before making anything public or even typing a word about them.
We have spoken to all parties involved and reviewed all footage and have reached the following conclusions:
– Whilst we do not condone his actions we believe from Samuel’s versions of events and the corroborating video that he made horrible error of judgment. However he did his upmost to protect the referee. We are not making excuses for him, nor would he want us to, but after explaining the severity of the situation we are confident that he understands what he did is wrong. Under no circumstances should he have put his hands on a non-wrestler without prior consent. Sha will undertake an internal disciplinary and will be on zero tolerance should any future incidents occur. However we are confident given his track record he will respond to this in the most positive manner possible.
– Unfortunately, Bodom’s actions do not match up with his recollection of events. This has left us with no option but to indefinitely sever ties with him. His actions should not and will not be tolerated and we hope that this sends a clear message of that fact. We hope that Josh will be able to reflect upon these actions and use them as an opportunity to learn and grow as a human being moving forward.
– Obviously in light of all of this Sha Samuels and Josh Bodom have been stripped of the Undisputed British Tag Team Championships effective immediately.
– One thing that’s been playing on our minds is that it took so long for us to realise there was an issue & we are aware that this unacceptable and has to change. In light of this we will be instituting an internal incident report policy. This is a similar form to what we use to report any incidents with crowd members but will be specifically used for our crew of performers both in and out of the ring. A simple centrally stored form that is easily accessible that can be filled out and e-mailed to management should there be ANY concerns or the need for an official complaint. We believe that had a system like this been in place then this matter would have been dealt with n a more timely fashion and we hope that it will take away any pressures of having your concerns taken seriously. We will actively be encouraging all wrestling promotions to adopt a similar policy.
– Likewise we would like to encourage any fans to contact us directly should they see something they are not satisfied with or are concerned about. We believe with more open lines of communication we can address any issues head on.
We’ve apologised privately and now we are apologising publicly to Aaren. If he feels that we in any way, shape or form condoned what happened on the show, we can assure you we did not. Should he be unable to referee moving forward we are hoping to work with Aaren to put his talents to use in other areas of the business, should he wish to do so.”
And Samuels added:
“I’m going to address this once, and that’s it. A mistake happened during our match last week. As a performer, thinking on my feet, I scoop slammed the referee (as safely as possible) and cut a promo saying it was a “stitch up”. …….
I got kicked in the face to the pleasure of the audience for my trouble and hoped the mistake was forgotten about. At the time I was only concerned about the integrity of the match. We spoke afterwards, and all seemed well.
I can only apologise for what happened…..
I genuinely believed I had done nothing wrong, but have now had my eyes opened and educated to the fact that regardless how safe you are, you should never assume it is ok to get physical with a non-wrestling member of the crew on the fly. I guess I have been too comfortable with the way things used to be. Things are different now.
I have reached out to Aaren privately and understand if he wants to take his time to get back to me, or if he doesn’t want to speak to me at all.
I wish he had reached out to me privately…..
I would never endanger anyone in a professional environment, no matter what the issue.
My peers know how safe and professional I am and can only apologise again to anyone who has been affected.”
Wasn’t meant to share this, but feel I need to protect myself. Here is the slam, as you can see I’ve protected him.
— Sha Samuels (@Shasamuels) September 8, 2019
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. pic.twitter.com/5jvmkePQfZ
Bodom deleted his Twitter and made his Instagram account private, but hasn’t issued any explanation or apology, and he has his supporters online. Most of the wrestling community seems to be rallying behind Wilde, however, including some high profile members of Team WWE like referee Drake Wuertz and a certain Bruiserweight. Pete Dunne weighed in on his mystery opponent for Sun., Sept. 15’s Progress show:
I hope it’s josh bodom https://t.co/QHP3F1hbfD
— Pete Dunne (@PeteDunneYxB) September 8, 2019
As you’d expect with their being New Japan’s partner in the United Kingdom, RevPro is pretty much the biggest non-WWE-affiliated promotion left in Britain & Ireland. Hopefully they can put this incident behind them, and the brief controversy behind it leads to a safer work environment for all performers all over the business moving forward.