NXT UK was one of the promotions hit hard by the Speaking Out movement.
In June 2022, David Starr was accused on a string of sexual assaults by a number of women. This started the ball rolling, as more and more wrestlers in the British wrestling scene (and beyond) were named as abusers.
Stars like Marty Scurll, Jimmy Havoc, Will Ospreay and Joey Ryan were all accused of various things. Some of them were blown out of proportion, while others forced the wrestlers to cut their careers short.
Companies like Progress, RevPro and NXT UK suffered losses of talent during this time. In this article, we’ll detail how NXT UK was affected by the accusations made in the Speaking Out movement in 2020.
A Number Of NXT UK Wrestlers Were Accused In The Speaking Out Movement
A number of NXT UK wrestlers were accused of sexual and other abuse in June 2020.
El Ligero and Travis Banks were two of the biggest names released from NXT UK during the Speaking Out movement. Both men were accused by former students of theirs at various levels of abuse.
Ligero was accused of creepy behaviour by a wrestler he helped train. He texted her sexual texts, tried to convince her to leave her partner. This led to bullying, which forced her to change training schools and confide in friends to help keep him away from her.
Meanwhile, Travis Banks had a similar story. The main difference was that he actually had a relationship with a 17-year-old Millie McKenzie when he was 30-years-old and her trainer.
This showed a huge power imbalance, and he was accused on abuse during this time. She even pointed out that what he did was against the law, although no charges were even filed towards him.
Both men were fired in June 2020, just days after being accused. While EL Ligero has retired from wrestling, Travis Banks continues to wrestler under a mask, and as himself, in Mexico.
Tyler Bate and Trent Seven were two other names who were accused, but little came of it. Seven was accused of hitting on underage girls at a wrestling show, offering to buy them drinks with an attempt to sleep with them.
However, this was a total fabrication. One of the girls later came out to clarify that they were of age, and in fact they were hitting on Trent Seven. It was a total fabrication, and he claimed he was taking legal action.
The accusations toward Tyler Bate were equally nonsense. There is little information as to what actually occurred. However, we do know that Bate allegedly hit on a married woman at the bar. He asked her for sex, she rejected him, and then we went on his way.
There is very little to go on, but it seems like the accusations had nothing behind them. While it may be a scummy thing to do if he knew she was married, it is not comparable to the crimes committed by other NXT UK stars.
Jordan Devlin, who is now known as JD McDonagh in his role in the Judgement Day in WWE, was also accused of various levels of abuse in the Speaking Out movement.
He denied being physically and mentally abusive to a former wrestler. WWE investigated, and found no reason to fire him from his role. As of 2024, it seems the allegations towards JD McDonagh were false.
Click here to read about every wrestler who was accused as part of the Speaking Out Movement.
Triple H Gave A Warning To The Talent After The Allegations
WWE COO Triple H was forced to hold a meeting with the NXT UK talent after the events of Speaking Out.
According to reports in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, The Game held a conference call with the wrestlers on June 30th. This was nearly two weeks after David Starr was first accused. It was also after El Ligero and David Starr had already been fired by the WWE.
He informed talent that, when it comes to such serious allegations as the ones we’ve seen, the company has a zero tolerance policy to any charges. Provided there is irrefutable evidence to them, the wrestler in question would be fired immediately.
This came across as a warning to the talent. The threat of firing was hopefully enough to get them to clean their act up.
No others wrestlers were fired due to Speaking Out, so maybe the meeting had some effect. However, given the historic nature of the crimes, it’s likely they just purged the bad apples before the meeting even occurred.
Speaking Out Was The Final Nail In The Coffin For BritWres
While it wasn’t the only thing that killed British Wrestling’s momentum, Speaking Out was the final nail in BritWres’ coffin.
While NXT UK starting was the biggest threat to the industry, the pandemic just three months before the allegations were the biggest factors. Interest dropped to an all-time low after COVID, with the dip starting after NXT UK was announced.
While it fell further, according to Google Trends, after Speaking Out, it was a trend that had been a long time coming. Interest in RevPro, for example, didn’t reach the heights of 2018 again until 2023. This was when Chris Jericho attacked Will Ospreay at the 11th Anniversary show.
As you can see on the graph, speaking out was an all-time low for RevPro. However, it was already at an all-time low before that, owing to NXT UK and the pandemic.
Speaking Out didn’t kill the UK indie scene, it just made sure it never reached its peak again (outside of the Jericho spike).
