Rick Steiner banned again from WrestleCon after refusing to publicly apologize
The Rick Steiner at WrestleCon saga took another twist this week just days after he was allowed to return for the Detroit event during SummerSlam weekend.
Steiner was forced to leave WrestleCon in April during WrestleMania weekend after he hurled several homophobic insults at Gisele Shaw during one of the sessions. He was eventually escorted out and later privately apologized in a meeting setup between WrestleCon and Impact Wrestling. Shaw chose not to attend the meeting.
Late last week, WrestleCon issued a statement saying that Steiner will be allowed back because everyone deserves a second chance and he made an apology in the private meeting, as well as they did not have a code of conduct in place.
But after backlash from fans online and a discussion with SB Nation’s Brian Bell, they agreed that at least Steiner should publicly apologize for his actions and gave him 24 hours to do it.
“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,” WrestleCon said in a statement.
In addition, WrestleCon has teamed up with Starrcast, Wrestlecade, and The Gathering to draft a code of conduct and anti-harassment policy which will apply to their future events.
Without proof in a society where everyone records everythting on a cellphone, why do we believe Rick Steiner said this just cause Gisele Shaw and her IMPACT coworker says he did. why doesn’t anyone prove this happen that doest work for Impact . Isn’t Gisel bf the man the runs IMPACt?
Do what the angry mob says!
Steiner did nothing wrong. There’s no place in wrestling for freaks like this ‘Gisele’ guy & the other fat guy in AEW. Wrestling promoters should do the right thing & cut them all before they kill or severely injure one of their women.
Commenting on the previous article https://www.gerweck.net/2023/07/16/rick-steiner-welcomed-back-to-wrestlecon-after-gisele-shaw-incident/, I wrote “This is a good result for everyone involved. I hope all parties will interact with each other in a respectful way going forward.” It now looks like not all parties have interacted with each other in a respectful way.
Wrestlecon has allowed the cancel culture mob to dictate terms. The matter was a private issue for Rick, yet made public by Giselle. Rick apologised, yet Giselle refused to accept it. There is nothing more that Rick can do. It’s a pity that forgiveness is not seen as a virtue today, but acting out for online clout is.
The woke cancel culture cancer is eating away at our society. Disregard confronting it, and it will end up being at your own peril.
I’ll play devil’s advocate.
1. Why would Steiner apologize in private if he didn’t say something ‘wrong’? I say ‘wrong’ because while someone’s thought process doesn’t agree with yours, it doesn’t make them wrong. It just means you don’t agree with them. (Unless, of course, they’re Religious in which case they are WRONG in all caps:))
2. Who’s asking for a public apology? No where above does it say Giselle didn’t accept Rick’s apology or want said apology made in public.
3. WOKE cancel culture cancer? Is the woke cancel culture shooting Bud Light cans and causing regular people (on the left AND right) to lose their jobs? How ’bout just plain, old everyday cancel culture (that hurts the little guy more than company) is eating away at our society. (However, it’s sad we can’t harness the power of cancel culture to get rid of rapists, murderers and child molesters. [At least it got rid of New Coke and Ford Pintos.])
4. So the new standard is, if there isn’t cell phone video of it, it didn’t happen.
Before my comment, I wanna make clear if that comment gets deleted again like in many other cases before when I called out transphobic behaviour, I will initiate legal action for hurting my freedom of speech. Some people here don’t get that freedom of speech isn’t a one way ticket.
And once again parts of this community show, that they are transphobic.
It’s like always. If far right people have no factual arguments, it’s always “BuT tHe FaR LeFt WoKe CaNcElCuLtUrE!!!!!!!!!”.
Did I just read the worst argument ever? “He apologized! There’s nothing more that he can do!” (so much for it didn’t happen. If it didn’t happen, he would have just said “Why apologize for something I didn’t do?”).
It might destroy some people’s world here, but the thing is, you don’t have to accept an apology.
Remember WW2? Imagine Hitler just apologized.
It sounds like if somebody apologizes, everything HAS TO be okay again and you try to take away the freedom of speech of people who still think Hitler was a war criminal. “What? He apologized!”
Or let’s say somebody kills your parents and apologizes afterwards. What? You are still mad? But he apologized, that’s everything he could have done!
Those examples might have been extreme, but I think even transphobic clowns should get how stupid this “But he apologized!” BS is now.
How many cases are known, where trans women killed or severely injured female wrestlers?
Remember when Brie Bella knocked out Liv Morgan? Or when Sasha Banks almost accidentally crippled Paige/Saraya? Oh, they weren’t trans women? Interesting…
Not to mention injuries can always happen, no matter which genders are involved, you far right transphobic clowns!
Oh and by the way… Hate against minorities or trans people is not just disagreeing with somebody.
“Hate against minorities or trans people is not just disagreeing with somebody.”
Agreed, IF you add HATE into the mix. But if someone says something stupid that I don’t agree with, then I just disagree with them. If we come to find out Rick has always done this kinda thing (or keeps doing it), then he’s wrong.
Sorry, I didn’t read the article entirely and missed the part where Shaw didn’t attend the private apology. Yes, she had every right to not accept the apology. But do we know she didn’t accept the apology or that she didn’t attend the meeting because she was too upset to at the time? (Not posing a sarcastic question, I’m genuinely curious.)
Lastly, comparing what Hitler apologized for and what Rick Steiner apologized for?!?!?! Come on.
Wow, six comments in and we’ve already achieved Godwin’s Law? Nice.
Some of the comments here and elsewhere are quite sad. It’s pretty obvious that some can’t look at this objectively because of their own personal beliefs.
No one there, including Steiner himself has come forward to deny he said those things to Gisele. That is very telling. One report also alleged that he made homophobic remarks to an unnamed gay wrestler there. I don’t know if this has been backed up by anyone else or not though.
Putting aside all “political” and “cancel culture” bs aside, acting out like that in a public venue and at professional event is both unprofessional and unacceptable. He is of course entitled to his beliefs, but when he can’t control his impulses and verbally attack someone, it is a big problem. Actions have consequences. This type of attack towards *anyone* is uncalled for and should be addressed by WrestleCon. Them going back and forth on the matter does not make them look good. They should’ve had a policy of any person there being disruptive can face consequences. Including the possibility of not being able to appear at any of the future events.