An anonymous post on Reddit has alleged that top NXT star Velveteen Dream sent explicit
photos to people under the age of 18.
Velveteen Dream, whose real name is Patrick Clark Jr., has since denied the allegations
on Twitter.
Here’s what we know so far.
The original post on SquaredCircle has been removed by moderators, as it “violated reddit's
global rule about leaked nsfw content”.
It has been shared widely on Twitter, though, where you can read the initial accusation:
Titled ‘Velveteen Dream hacked?’ the original poster alleged the NXT wrestler “posted
on his Instagram story that his DM’s were open”, leading to them and Drean to talking
privately.
The post then accuses Clark Jr of “sending my friends and I messages of a sexual nature”,
later editing the post to clarify they are 17 years old, and their friends are 15 and
16.
The original poster alleges this came from a phone number with a Washington area code
- where Clark Jr is from - it was sent by his verified Instagram account, and that the
picture is “believable”.
Including the alleged explicit picture, which has the head cropped out - meaning it does
not confirm anyone’s identity.
The poster then claims Dream’s account blocked them after they “wouldn’t send him an
uncensored nude pic back.”
As their original post was picked up more on Reddit, they added an edit saying they
were now “really worried about all this” and asked for advice over whether they should
take this to the police.
The poster writes that they hope this is just a case of Clark Jr’s social media being
hacked, while people on Twitter doubted the accusation’s authenticity - saying the Instagram
verified tick in the screenshots appeared Photoshopped.
Seemingly in reply to these, a clip was posted later on, showing more of the alleged conversation,
including a voice note asking “What school do you go to?”
Which the poster claims is Dream’s.
The accusations had picked up so much momentum on Twitter that Clark Jr denied them in a
statement on his official Velveteen Dream account:
“Be assured I did not communicate inappropriately with anyone.
A private photo of mine was shared without my consent or knowledge and I am working with
a third party to look into this matter.”
NXT is currently building to Velveteen Dream challenging Adam Cole for the promotion’s
top title.
This is still very early in a developing situation, with WWE themselves not having commented.
Make sure to keep checking WrestleTalk.com for updates.
But whatever happens with those new allegations, the ever rigorous Sean Ross Sapp from Fightful
has uncovered another recent controversy around the Velveteen Dream.
Sapp writes that “While researching a different story” - which you’d assume is yesterday’s
allegations - Fightful was sent an “affidavit for an arrest warrant for Patrick Clark, also
known as WWE's Velveteen Dream” - but the situation was later deemed “not suitable
for prosecution”.
Fightful claims that on 30th November last year, a man named Edgar Rodriguez “reported
a criminal mischief to Orlando PD... stating that he parked his 2015 Infiniti QX70 on North
Magnolia avenue.
When he returned to the vehicle, he found his driver's side window smashed, and the
incident was caught on the building's surveillance footage.
The footage featured a black man in a pink shirt and dark colored pants approaching the
vehicle, and motioning as if he was smashing the window, before riding off in a blue Ford
Mustang.
On December 18, Rodriguez contacted an officer, saying he saw the same man in the same car
in his parking garage.
The man was identified as Velveteen Dream after a December 29 police lineup, and the
Mustang's license plate showed it was registered to Clark (Dream).
The damage was stated to equal $1800 according to the warrant affidavit.”
A warrant was then issued for Clark’s arrest with a bail of $1,000, but then on February
11th, that warrant was recalled, undersigned by the Assistant State Attorney, saying that
from further investigation “it is the opinion of the writer that this case is not suitable
for prosecution” and that “this action is taken to clear the records”.
No specific reason was cited for the change.
Over the last few weeks, the state of Florida and WWE have been increasingly entwined in
controversy.
Initially, state officials were trying to shut down WWE’s TV tapings as they violated
stay-at-home orders.
But then suddenly, coincidentally the same day Linda McMahon’s political fundraising
organisation America First Action pledged almost $20 million to the state, Florida deemed
her family business of wrestling an “essential service” - allowing WWE to continue with
their live taping schedule.
Palm Beach County state attorney Dave Aronberg sarcastically theorised to ESPN that he’s
sure that “had nothing to do with the fact that the McMahon family is very tight with
the Trump’s”.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that conspiracy theory goes beyond Aronberg,
as “There is a belief that the state allowing WWE to continue running, as an essential business,
also had to do with getting the 2022 WrestleMania in Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, as was
originally planned for this year.”
WrestleManias can bring in tens of millions of dollars to the local economy.
But despite initially seeming like they’d do the responsible thing and not run live
shows until stay-at-home orders are lifted, AEW are going to exploit the same, arguably
reckless Florida loophole.
While these plans might change depending on how the spread of Steve Corino is contained,
Dave Meltzer writes that AEW’s intention right now is to start broadcasting Dynamite
live from the 6th May from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville.
This will be to push feuds for their next big pay-per-view Double or Nothing on May
23rd, which will likely also air from Daily’s Place.
Apparently AEW expects to have twice as much talent available for the shows, and many have
started to go into quarantine ahead of the tapings.
WWE, in contrast, actually broadcast their last live SmackDown for two weeks last night,
with the promotion now set to bulk record TV in fortnightly batches.
And here’s what happened in that episode in about 4 min-
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The show opened with Big E & Kofi Kingston celebrating their eighth tag team title win
last week, with Kofi putting over Big E for being the one to do it.
Big E heel turn confirmed.
All the tag team division standing in a row interrupted them, with The Forgotten Sons
standing tall after the consequent brawl.
King Corbin qualified for the Climb The Corporate Ladder Match by defeating Drew Gulak next,
thanks to Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro beating up Daniel Bryan at ringside.
Corbin, Nakamura and Cesaro all stood in the ring together afterwards to celeb-oh god No...it
can’t be…
NO ONE CAN ESCAPE THE PULL OF KING CORBIN’S MID-CARD VORTEX!
Sheamus squashed Daniel Vidot before part 3 of Hardy’s mini-documentary series focusing
on his incredbile return at WrestleMania 33.
Oh hey there Matt Hardy, I wonder what he’s up to these days.
Then the Lucha House Party shockingly beat Miz and Morrison - with Gran Metalik pinning
the Miz.
They’re really pushing Miz as the weak link of the team, with him losing the tag titles
last week and losing again here.
Perhaps the hacker’s tag team split tease is Miz & Morrison.
Still Big E heel turn confirmed.
In another Climb the Corporate Ladder Match qualifier, Lacey Evans beat Sasha Banks with
a Women’s Right after Bayley tried to help Banks win the match, but arguably ended up
costing her it.
Tamina then superkicked Bayley to end the segment, because that’s the more immediate
feud right now, even though it’s rather uninteresting.
A cool video package displayed the history between Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt ahead
of their Blueniversal Championship Match at Climb The Corporate Ladder In The Bank, where
they’re advertising Bray Wyatt for the match and not The Fiend.
The last time they did this was when Mr Rogers Bray fought The Miz at TLC last year - but
that was because Wyatt had no history with him.
That approach doesn’t make so much sense with Bray and Strowman, though.
Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross retained their Women’s Tag Titles against the franken-team of Carmella
& Dana Brooke next, where Bliss & Cross debuted their new tag team finisher: the modified
3D, with a DDT instead of a cutter.
And the main event segment saw Triple H celebrate his 25th anniversary with WWE, also known
as the roast of Triple H. This segment was overly long and self-indulgent, but it did
still have its moments - like security taking Triple H’s water bottle to stop him spitting
it out, jokes from Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair facetiming in, and then facetiming again
just to cry some more, and video packages showing things like how much Triple H has
lost at WrestleMania.
Plus there was a rare appearance from Mr Brodie Lee parody Vince McMahon himself.
McMahon isn’t what he once was, and came across rather rambly.
The show ended with him “kicking them out” and turning the lights off as the sound of
crickets played - to which Shawn remarked to Triple H “story of your career”.
This was fun and lighthearted, but it probably shouldn’t have main evented the show.
So that was SmackDown, let me know what you thought in the comments below because I’ll
be replying FROM OUTTA QUARANTINE, and give your rating by pressing the i above my head.
This was yet another solid building show for Climb the Corporate Ladder in the Bank, with
more qualifying matches and the tag division being effectively fleshed out.
This SmackDown gets a high Smack Bang in the Middle.
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I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.