WrestleCon has pulled WWE Hall of Famer Rick Steiner from their upcoming events next month in Detroit.
Rick Steiner was permanently banned from WrestleCon back in April after the tag team legend made transphobic comments at IMPACT star Gisele Shaw, an incident that quickly went viral and had multiple members of the industry come to Shaw’s defense and slam Rick for his bigoted viewpoints. On Sunday, WrestleCon had announced that the ban had been lifted, with WrestleCon owner giving a detailed story as to why he thought Rick should be given another chance.
However, that announcement was met with incredible backlash and WrestleCon has since announced today that Rick is once again pulled from the event. In their statement, WrestleCon reveals that the Hall of Famer was given 24 hours to publicly apologize for his comments made to Shaw, a request that he did not answer in time. WrestleCon adds that they have since drawn up a code of conduct for all future guests and attendees.
You can check out the full statement below.
Attention: Rick Steiner has been removed from Wrestlecon.
When we allowed Rick Steiner to return to our Convention as a vendor guest of Tony Hunter Promotions, we did not adequately take into account the impact his past words from our last event still held in the LGBTQIA+ community. We initially allowed him to return because 1) We still feel that people deserve a second chance. 2) Rick did make an apology to all parties that chose to be present. 3) We lacked any type of code of conduct/harassment policy that clearly defined our expectations as a convention participant.
After a thoughtful dialogue with Brian Bell from SB Nation’s Outsports and host of the LGBT In the Ring podcast on Monday morning, we agreed with his opinion it was necessary to have some type of public acknowledgment/apology from Rick Steiner, at an absolute minimum, to allow him to attend Detroit. Because we understand this issue required great urgency, we gave Rick Steiner 24 hours to make such a statement. Unfortunately, there is not currently and we do not expect to receive such a statement, and we have therefore made a decision to revoke our permission for him to attend.
Additionally, we now have created a first draft of our Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment policy that will be posted on our website for everybody to see later today. We will continue to improve upon this code of conduct over time and with the cooperation of others. We understand and appreciate that there will be many differences of opinion among our participants and we want to create a safe and enjoyable space for everybody at our Conventions. At this time, we have partnered in solidarity with other Wrestling industry Convention leaders, notably Starrcast, Wrestlecade, and The Gathering (Charlotte Fanfest) who also agree to adopt and adhere to a similar code of conduct for their events.