AEW star Sammy Guevara released a new video statement on his Youtube channel to address the comments he made on a podcast in 2016, when he joked about raping WWE’s Sasha Banks. Guevara has since apologized on Twitter, and has been suspended by AEW without pay as he seeks counseling.
In the video, Guevara begins by once again saying he was sorry for letting everyone down, especially Banks, and that the 2020 version of him is much different than the 2016 one.
I just want to apologize to anyone I let down, to Sasha, to anyone I hurt with my words. It just sucks because 2016 me is not me today,” Guevara said. “2020 me would never say those kind of hurtful things that I did in 2016. I used to think it was funny to do some kind of shock humor, to pop the room I’m in. I thought it’d be funny to do this kind of shock humor. And it’s not. I learned along the way, a lot has happened in four years of my life. I know a lot of people think four years is not that much time, but if you look at how much has happened to me, from wrestling in the middle of nowhere in Texas to wrestling all around the world, to wrestling in different countries, wrestling on TV in AEW, so much has happened to me.
He continued…
One of the things that’s happened is me growing as a person. I understand now that the words I say can impact people more than I’ll ever understand, they can hurt people more than I’ll ever realize. That’s why you will not catch me saying these hurtful things in 2020. 2016 me is a very different me. That’s not an excuse, I still said those things and I’ll still pay for those things. But that’s not me.
Check out the full statement below. (H/T and transcribed by Comicbook.Com)