#resgal

 This is some sociopathic bullshit. 

The promotion that said that Will Ospreay had forced them not to book wrestler Pollyanna (who had accused a friend of Ospreay’s of rape) is now saying that the story was made up. Basically, another promoter told IWL that Ospreay wanted her banned from a show and IWL did nothing to investigate his claim. They took it at face value. Let me repeat: they took at face value a claim that someone demanded a wrestler be removed from a show without ever trying to contact the person named, or even asking the person who conveyed the request to provide some kind of proof that what he said was the truth.

Pollyanna has said that the reason she believed she was shunned was because of IWL saying that she had been. A woman who had already been traumatized by rape is now being told that the owner of ResGal and IWL exploited her fear that she would be forced out of the wrestling community as retribution. It’s beyond grotesque. 

I’ve done support work for sexual assault victims and sex workers for years and that means I’ve seen the effects of punishing victims for telling the truth. Normally, this sort of thing is done by people close to the perpetrator, which is harmful enough. But this is a group who came forward pretending to be on her side. This is a group she knew in a professional context and relied on to be objective. How is this woman supposed to trust anything any promotion tells her ever? Who does this kind of thing?

Worse yet, a lot of people are going to assume that the lie reflects on the validity of Pollyanna’s rape accusation. The two are completely separate things but I guarantee you that people in the larger wrestling community will conflate them. And the people who told this lie did so totally aware that this would be the case. 

My heart breaks for Pollyanna, who has already been through more than any woman should in the pursuit of her wrestling dream.