#SpeakOut - Sexual Assault Allegations Superthread

David Starr has been accused of emotionally and mentally abusing ex-girlfriends and raping one of those exes. It's all on his twitter where he's made statements apologising and talking about "grey rape". He's finished in wrestling.

undertaker fan 88 wrote: »

Anyone else see the david Starr stuff on Twitter. Ott need distance themselves from him immediately

And him the OTT World Champ!

undertaker fan 88 wrote: »

Needs be stripped of the belt immediately. The more he tweets today the worse it sounds. If ott do nothing about it I will never support them again.

It's only an allegation at this point. Due process and all that?

The Wrestling Observer reported this as him denying it. He wrote a 4-page note confessing and apologising to his ex about it, but to the Observer readers now who get their updates from there, he denied it all.

This is what I mean when I talk about the slant they put on their stories totally confusing the discourse in wrestling. Every time the story is “famous wrestler is accused of something by less famous woman”, the narrative is “they denied it so she’s probably lying.” Even when they actually confess. They did the exact same with Michael Elgin.

Yeah like even when he confessed it was laced with implications that she was lying. “I’m sorry that, even though we had sex multiple times that night and you said you loved it...” that kinda stuff that’s actually totally unnecessary if you’re actually apologising and remorseful. Like if you dispute it, dispute it. He wants to but obviously knows he can’t, so has to go this route, and is actually proving her point way more than what she’s said herself.

Having said that, it is interesting to see someone so high profile come to terms with the fact that they’re a rapist in real time.

I presume prison is on the cards for him as he's admitted to it?

See the quote. Treat everyone the same! It is wrong on every level forever, not just in 2020.

Take notice of people in the game who say nothing or make mind bending statements ..... This is not just 1 person. You cheer alot of wrestlers who do similar.....

The Nal wrote: »

weareallmarks wrote: »

They where trainees etc doing a job, not fair of you to say anything about them

I am always fair.
it was the crowd holding him up in stadium - it's printed on a T-shirt.
Probably a lot of backtracking now from people saying they never liked him all along.

mayordenis wrote: »

Nonsense, I certainly will be the first to admit that the character and the entire angle between him, Walter, and Devlin was something I thought was fantastic - completely bought in to it throughout. But I'm not going to feel like I somehow am tainted by this, that me or anyone else should have known.

that's a perfectly fine stance to take - what's interesting is certain media now putting on their twitter they knew something was up with Starr before this broke, but i heard nothing but praise for him & his OTT run previously.

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Let's think outside the wrestling box for a few moments. This is just the latest in a long line of situations involving the awful (and often criminal) behaviour of public figures. Sometimes great artists do questionable or awful things, or are awful people in their personal lives, Kevin Spacey, Michael Jackson, Roman Polanski, Chris Benoit, et cetera. Nobody knows where to draw the line between enjoying their art and admonishing the brutal things they've done. This is especially true when we're only used to seeing the good things they've produced, and not what they're like off-camera.

My post does not say that - I am agreeing that most were not aware of any of David's personal life. What i am mentioning is the twitter posters, who most will be familiar with here, retrospectively saying they always knew something was up with Starr after the fact, yet i saw no mention of that during his OTT run, praising him.

I do appreciate that you referred to our business as "art" though.

What do people want people to say though? I’ve been vocal about feeling uncomfortable about David Starr like there was a massive bang of hypocrisy off him pretty much since he started the ‘We The Independent’ stuff. My show was one of the only ones that covered the Seb accusations and Starr’s weirdly suspicious response. What more could I do? Seb put up about him DMing a Progress trainee, what more could he do there? Are people not more culpable if they saw/heard all of that and said nothing, if we’re going to randomly assign additional ‘blame’ for crimes that none of us are guilty of? How guilty are the people that attacked anyone who said anything not overwhelmingly positive about Starr (of which there were many)?

But all of that is a witch hunt for the sake of a witch hunt. The only person who’s actually done wrong here is Starr. The rest of us are just human processing the news in different, but equally valid, human ways.

Here’s what’s at play in the real world beyond random online narratives:

- It’s possible to get bad vibes off people without knowing anything, but reckless to state they’re anything but that without evidence. I can only speak for myself but I feel uncomfortable and compelled to speak up if someone I get bad vibes off starts to get this overwhelming support like Starr does, like if I don’t say anything I’m just part of the mob if it turns out my suspicions were correct. I don’t expect to change others’ opinions but I can sleep better at night knowing I said something.

- If people did hear stories, they may have heard them 2nd or 3rd hand and don’t have nearly enough info to make them public without risking getting it very wrong and damaging an innocent person’s reputation or facing a lawsuit even if they got it right because they can’t prove what they said.

- Even if you hear stories directly from victims and have irrefutable proof, it’s not your story to tell! It’s not your decision to make their sex lives and history of abuse public!

- Lastly, it IS valid to feel happy that a bad person got caught. Do you feel positive when you see the likes of Harvey Weinstein or bad politicians get their comeuppance? That’s literally one of the most natural feelings in the world. The entire premise of the thing we’re all here discussing is based on people wanting to see good guys get the better of bad guys!

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Not yet. I'm hoping to start training soon ...

Sadly I fear you may be waiting a long time. Doesn't look like any of the schools are opening up soon.

Debbie Keitel just posted somethin about another Irish wrestler on her Twitter. Fair play to her for being brave about it, sucks that another wrestler I like on the Irish scene turns out to be a complete bo***x. You can have a look for yourselves to see who it is, explains a lot.

Man, wrestling is weird.

Just read a few stories about Marty Scurll. If there's any truth to them he's in deep sh1t.

The sheer amount of stories coming out is so shocking