One of the biggest names accused as part of the Speaking Out Movement was AEW star Will Ospreay.
The movement itself was a turning point in British wrestling. It helped put the nail in the coffin of the “BritWres” peak, and irreparably damaged the sport’s popularity. Parliament even discussed the issue, which shows just how bad everything had become.
You can read more about the details of the Speaking Out Movement here, but the gist of it is this: A number of wrestlers, particularly in the UK, were accused of varying levels of physical, mental and sexual abuse.
Many of the accused retired from the business, and never wrestled again. Some denied the claims, and continue to wrestling in companies like AEW and WWE to this day.
One of this accused was Will Ospreay, who struggled massively with a gripe from a female wrestle back in 2020.
Will Ospreay Was Accused Of Blackballing An Abuse Victim From The Industry
Will Ospreay was accused as part of the Speaking Out movement, but not for abusing any female wrestlers or partners.
Instead, he was accused by Pollyanna, a Welsh female wrestler, of getting her blackballed from the industry. The situation began with Pollyanna accusing Scott Wainwright of sexually assaulting her in 2016 or 2017.
Wainwright was a friend of Ospreay’s, and the accusation was something he did not believe, and would not take lightly. He Tweeted in response to the claim, although did not mention the alleged victim by name.
Ospreay said: “Think it’s disgusting that people can use social media to accuse people of sexual assault. More than a handful of people know the real you. Trying to use your position to isolate and assault someone is pathetic.”
However, he quickly deleted that Tweeted, and issuses a swift apology. Ospreay wrote, “I cannot express how sorry I am that I may have turned people into thinking I’m so careless about this subject. I care way too much about my fans and the victims. I really hope you guys can forgive me & will happily listen too any suggestions to make this right again.”.
Little was heard about the incident for a few years, until David Starr kicked off what become known as the Speaking Out Movement. Accusations from Pollyanna were levied towards Ospreay, accusing him of telling promoters to stop booking her.
However, in the Tweet did not mention him by name. She said;
“Seeing the list of names being mentioned in speaking out, were also some of the guys who banded together to bad mouth me, talk about how a great guy he is and got me blacklisted. I hope all of your careers are ruined, you sick headed arses.”
Given his status in the UK wrestling scene, this would have effectively ended her career as a professional wrestler. Pollyanna last wrestled in 2018, a year after Ospreay’s Tweet, so there was a possibility that he had a hand in ending her career.
Ospreay Apologised To Pollyanna, Who Accused Him Of Lying
Following the accusations against him, Will Ospreay felt it necessary to make a statement. In the now-deleted Tweet, the Aerial Assassin apologised to the Welsh wrestler, in a statement posted in an image.
He accompanied this with a caption, which he meant to say he hasn’t committed any crimes, calling himself “one of the good guys”.
“Here is a statement regarding my deleted tweet from 3 years ago. More importantly, my apology to Pollyanna. If there is anything more I can do please reach out & keep Speaking Out. Please know I have committed any crime & I am one of the good guys, I’m just severely uneducated.”
Ospreay clarified in the statement mentioned that he didn’t blacklist anyone, nor sexually assaulted her. He thought Pollyanna retired a year before he made the initial statement.
While this was incorrect, its easy to see why. Pollyanna took an extended hiatus from Progress Wrestling in late-2016, which is where Ospreay may have assumed she had retired from wrestling.
He didn’t get along with her because he alleged she belittled Bea Priestly in wrestling training. He claimed she bullied her, and gave her stiff shots for no reason, while talking about her behind her back. This is what Pollyanna claimed Bea did to her.
Ospreay said he would tell promoters what he thought of her if they asked, and he gave a negative view of her, because they did not get along. He denied ever getting her blacklisted from wrestling.
This did not wash with Pollyanna. Now retired, she did not waste time responding to the AEW star, not believing a word of what he said. She also accused Bea Priestly, Ospreay’s former partner, of saying “awful things” about her backstage.
“You are not sorry. You did blacklist me” She wrote. “When I first messaged your friend’s Mrs, you then told everyone I had lied about us sleeping together. I know, I have sources from so many different people telling me Bea would be saying awful things about me in a locker room.”
IWL and Progress Commentated On The Allegations
Despite the accusations, and the apology by Ospreay, the wrestling companies’ stories don’t match up with Pollyanna’s claims.
The International Wrestling League (IWL) confirmed that Will Ospreay never contacted the company in order to get Pollyanna removed from one of their shows. However, a Tweet in June that year seemed to say the opposite, with IWL calling Ospreay’s denial “Total bullshit”.
Progress also confirmed that Pollyanna chose to retire, and was never unbooked by the company. This would imply that Ospreay never cost her the opportunity to wrestle for the company, although they never explicitly commented on the allegations, outside of apologising to Pollyanna for “failing” her.
There is no clear answer to what the truth is. RJ Singh confirmed that there were “tensions” between Priestly and Pollyanna, although he denied the allegations of bullying.
To us, it looks like a case similar to the CM Punk and Colt Cabana drama. Like Tony Khan, it seems the owners of promotions were told about the issues between Pollyanna and Will Ospreay, and made the decision to book him, and not her.
However, there is absolutely nothing reported about Ospreay sexually assaulting anybody, nor any other kind of abuse.
