Earlier this week, Wrestling Twitter was filled with controversy as a event poster came out for a women’s benefit show taking place in Knoxville, Tennessee. The event was titled Wrestling 4 Women’s Charity.
If you take a closer look at the graphic, you can see a picture of Joey Ryan. Almost hidden as if it was a Where’s Waldo puzzle. The former independent wrestler that had been accused of sexual harassment by a number of women in professional wrestling was trying to find his way back into the business. Ryan filed lawsuits against the victims that stepped forward including Pelle Primeau who came out about Ryan actively pursuing his fiancée. Primeau is currently seeking help with his legal battle. If you’re able to donate please do so HERE.
As it turns out, Ryan himself was behind this show, in what seemed like to be the role of the booker. Many of the talent, if not all, were not told that Ryan would be part of this event. Several wrestlers dropped off the event after seeing the poster that day on Twitter. President of AEW Tony Khan tweeted that he would be pulling all AEW talent from this event which included Brian Cage and Sonny Kiss. The poster also said that the event was scheduled to stream on FiteTV. In a tweet by FiteTV, they denied ever agreeing to stream said event.
Hello, this is Kim Hurwitz, CMO of FITE. I wanted to confirm that this event is not being carried by FITE. Thank you for your comments. We love our pro wrestling community!
— TrillerTV (@FiteTV) March 2, 2021
After the backlash it was tweeted out that the booked talent were fully aware of all details including AEW’s third party booking system. This bought on even more backlash as no one believed the tweet. Shortly after, the @Wrestling4WC Twitter account was deactivated.
Yesterday, wrestler Pinkie Sanchez was asking the promotion Violence x Suffering, also known as VXS, to step forward and admit their involvement with the event. When no one came forward, Sanchez revealed screenshots of messages between him and a person named Orlando Fernandez. Towards the end of the messages Orlando says “There going to be a show dropping next couple days should get u nice and hot on social media I want to tell u but let it be a surprise.” This was said 2 days before the show was announced.
Turns out Orlando Fernandez who had an association with the promotion VXS, was funding this now canceled show. In another screenshot shared to Bodyslam.net, Orlando says he couldn’t have Ryan at VXS because “n***** sensitive.” Or maybe he knew that the VXS promoter would not tolerate or support this.
The promoter of VXS, Isaac Rodriguez took to Twitter and made a statement of his own. In the tweet Isaac states that he had no knowledge of this show and has parted ways with former owner Orlando Fernandez and he will be sole promoter of the VXS brand going forward.
Sorry I used my notes app but thought I should address this publicly: pic.twitter.com/vtI7LW1Zh8
— Isaac Rodriguez 🌎 (@ThatPunkIsaac) March 4, 2021
VXS will continue to move on and put on shows with some of the best talent that independent wrestling has to offer. Their latest event “The Violence of the Lambs” can be seen now and features Mance Warner taking on former WWE Superstar JTG in the main event. You can also watch their other two events “Stay High” and “In Too Deep.” If you aren’t already subscribed to IWTV, you can use the promo code “Fuck12” for a 5 day FREE trial.