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| At the center of all this is Starr Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Absolute Intense Wrestling is coming off one of their biggest weekends ever. The JT Lightning Invitational Tournament drew rave reviews, and part of that critical success was the portrayal of women. Kimber Lee went all the way to the semifinals where she lost only to Johnny Gargano, one of the two or three biggest stars on the independent circuit. Seleziya Sparx was able to leave a mark on Ethan Page before falling to him in the first round. Veda Scott, though a first-round loser, defended her Tag Championships successfully on night 2.
However, those three women were the subject of apparently creepy behavior by AIW's promoter, John Thorne, in an Instagram collage posted by Allysin Kay. This drew some fire from fans who caught wind of it, although reaching out to Thorne and the women involved revealed that they were planned poses. No harm, no foul on that end, even if they did come off creepy to those who didn't know any better. However, Thorne started tweeting about a failed relationship with Addy Starr, who was supposed to compete in the tournament, but because of their breakup, parted way with the company. Those tweets have been deleted for the most part, but they still painted an ugly picture, especially since Starr didn't really respond to them with her side.
I've heard both sides of the story, and in the interest of not getting involved in a murky personal matter, I'm not going to comment on it here, no matter my opinion on it. However, the fact that Thorne commented on it publicly put it out in the open. It made a lot of fans uncomfortable, especially fans who want to think that AIW's product is progressive and isn't just a show with women sleeping with the promoter to get spots. His explanations have assuaged some concerns, but others still can't get the thought out of their heads.
The thing is that I can't blame anyone for what they want to do in response to this situation, mainly because money works like a watershed in wrestling. Yes, the promoter takes home the lion's share of the money, but just because wrestlers whom fans want to support may make only in double digits per s show, that's still money that they depend on. If fans don't come to the shows, it's not just promoters they feel are skeezy who feel the pinch. It's a trickle-down effect.
However, how else can a fan who is uncomfortable with the actions of a promoter make them pay for their indiscretions while still showing the wrestlers that they have support? The easy answer is to go watch wrestling promotions that aren't staffed by questionable managers and buy merchandise, where the wrestlers make the most of their own money, directly from them in their online stores. However, if you pry back the armor on any promoter, there are bound to be unsavory stories and character traits. Whether they're as trivial as "Chris Hero said Mike Quackenbush was a real jerk" or as serious as "John Thorne might be creepy at the very least," every company has their barnacles, whether you think they're deserved or not.
Again, the Addy Starr stuff is a personal matter, and there's a lot of "he said, she said" going on. The Instagram stuff was all good according to all the parties involved, but what if none of that is good enough for you? Like, I can understand how that might seem like perpetuation of the patriarchy to some people, and I can't tell them to "buck up" and support a company just because their art is good. But I also can't denounce AIW when the wrestlers did nothing wrong, and when there are other people involved in management that don't have those cobwebs in their belfries. The answer here is "I just don't know." It's not wrong or shameful not to know the answers to everything, especially when there are at least three sides to every story, with the third – the truth – oftentimes not being easy to see at all.
Everyone has their own line. I know it seems like a copout to say that, but it's true. I argued a lot about agency in defense of Anarchy Championship Wrestling, but is artistic agency important enough to ignore unprofessional behavior at the very least? While I won't come down publicly on anything that happened behind the scenes, Thorne's behavior in tweeting about Starr was unprofessional as all get out. I don't know if that's a symptom of something more insidious or not, but you know what? I'm not going to blame anyone if they think it is.
However, those three women were the subject of apparently creepy behavior by AIW's promoter, John Thorne, in an Instagram collage posted by Allysin Kay. This drew some fire from fans who caught wind of it, although reaching out to Thorne and the women involved revealed that they were planned poses. No harm, no foul on that end, even if they did come off creepy to those who didn't know any better. However, Thorne started tweeting about a failed relationship with Addy Starr, who was supposed to compete in the tournament, but because of their breakup, parted way with the company. Those tweets have been deleted for the most part, but they still painted an ugly picture, especially since Starr didn't really respond to them with her side.
I've heard both sides of the story, and in the interest of not getting involved in a murky personal matter, I'm not going to comment on it here, no matter my opinion on it. However, the fact that Thorne commented on it publicly put it out in the open. It made a lot of fans uncomfortable, especially fans who want to think that AIW's product is progressive and isn't just a show with women sleeping with the promoter to get spots. His explanations have assuaged some concerns, but others still can't get the thought out of their heads.
The thing is that I can't blame anyone for what they want to do in response to this situation, mainly because money works like a watershed in wrestling. Yes, the promoter takes home the lion's share of the money, but just because wrestlers whom fans want to support may make only in double digits per s show, that's still money that they depend on. If fans don't come to the shows, it's not just promoters they feel are skeezy who feel the pinch. It's a trickle-down effect.
However, how else can a fan who is uncomfortable with the actions of a promoter make them pay for their indiscretions while still showing the wrestlers that they have support? The easy answer is to go watch wrestling promotions that aren't staffed by questionable managers and buy merchandise, where the wrestlers make the most of their own money, directly from them in their online stores. However, if you pry back the armor on any promoter, there are bound to be unsavory stories and character traits. Whether they're as trivial as "Chris Hero said Mike Quackenbush was a real jerk" or as serious as "John Thorne might be creepy at the very least," every company has their barnacles, whether you think they're deserved or not.
Again, the Addy Starr stuff is a personal matter, and there's a lot of "he said, she said" going on. The Instagram stuff was all good according to all the parties involved, but what if none of that is good enough for you? Like, I can understand how that might seem like perpetuation of the patriarchy to some people, and I can't tell them to "buck up" and support a company just because their art is good. But I also can't denounce AIW when the wrestlers did nothing wrong, and when there are other people involved in management that don't have those cobwebs in their belfries. The answer here is "I just don't know." It's not wrong or shameful not to know the answers to everything, especially when there are at least three sides to every story, with the third – the truth – oftentimes not being easy to see at all.
Everyone has their own line. I know it seems like a copout to say that, but it's true. I argued a lot about agency in defense of Anarchy Championship Wrestling, but is artistic agency important enough to ignore unprofessional behavior at the very least? While I won't come down publicly on anything that happened behind the scenes, Thorne's behavior in tweeting about Starr was unprofessional as all get out. I don't know if that's a symptom of something more insidious or not, but you know what? I'm not going to blame anyone if they think it is.
