Over the weekend, WrestleCon announced that they would welcome Rick Steiner and his brother Scott back to their events following a transphobic tirade Rick hurled at Impact’s Gisele Shaw during WrestleMania 39 weekend. Following the announcement, the owner of the convention released a lengthy statement trying to explain the decision, noting that Rick had apologized to everyone involved except Shaw, who did not want to meet with him. The statement was largely met with a negative reaction.
The following day, WrestleCon released their talent guide, featuring autograph and photo pricing for various booked talents, but did not include Rick as part of it. Haus of Wrestling reached out to WrestleCon for comment and received the following statement, “After the feedback we got yesterday about Rick Steiner, we felt it would be better to put out a pricing list without his name so people that need the information could focus on it.” That statement also largely received a negative reaction.
The situation seems to have evolved further, as the promotion has now released another statement announcing they have officially removed Rick from the event. You can find 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.