Booker T gives a statement on Reality of Wrestling safety.
On February 10, Fightful published a story regarding an incident that occurred at Reality of Wrestling in December 2022 and the events that led to the incident. In the story, former Reality of Wrestling talent Raychell Rose alleged that she was fired by Booker T and the promotion over an incident regarding Shawn Reed, who she alleges stalked her.
Booker T did comment to Fightful in the story and confirmed that Rose was fired, but cited "internal reasons."
On his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker issued more comments on the story and incident.
"A story came out about Reality of Wrestling that was dropped by Fightful. The story was about safety issues and being able to own up to the situation. I want everyone to know that at Reality of Wrestling, allegations like what are in this story, we take very serious. Sharmell and I. We take the allegations very serious. For 20 years, we've been working with young people on a weekly basis. My motto has always been safety first. In the ring and out of the ring. My students have always had a line to me as far as they can call me and talk to me on a regular basis. The story that came out, it was about an incident that happened in December of 2022. This isn't an incident that happened yesterday or anything. Sometimes I question, why didn't this story come out a year or months ago? It really wasn't a story, I didn't believe. I thought it was an incident that happened, a situation that was handled, and we got past that situation," he said.
From the original story:
Booker insisted that the timing of this story emerging was due to a meeting at the January 13 Reality of Wrestling show that related to loyalty among the wrestlers. We can confirm that we heard of this story after Booker T and Reality of Wrestling told their talent that they didn't want their wrestlers working other independent companies in Houston. Booker was also curious as to why it took a year for the story to emerge, which Rose said was because she feared possible retaliation from Reed, and finally felt safe sharing the story.
Booker continued on his podcast, saying, "Let's go to the night in question. It was an incident that went down and it was the first time I found out about it. The person we're talking about in this story, Raychell Rose, a former student at Reality of Wrestling, had an issue with a prior student that was part of Reality of Wrestling, years prior. I think he vacated Reality of Wrestling in 2020. A situation that I knew nothing about until this night. I found out about it before the show. I thought I handled it. After the show, Raychell Rose came to me and told me about the problem, not the situation. The problem. When she told me about the problem with her and Shawn Reed, having an issue, I say, 'Let's fix this problem.' I knew Shawn Reed was at the bar next door, off Reality of Wrestling property, and I asked Raychell Rose, 'Please, don't go there; go somewhere else so we can diffuse this situation and handle it.' For me, this is an issue that I can't handle. This is an issue that police need to be involved with. I left. After that conversation, I stressed, 'Raychell Rose, go somewhere else. Go anywhere. So many other places you can go to. Do that for me so we can diffuse the situation.' I left, went home, next thing you know, I'm getting a phone call from the bar owner, I'm getting a phone call from the police and the boys to come back and figure out what happened. Raychell Rose chose to go to the bar. What happened after that was totally out of my control. I just want to stress. Sharmell and I take full responsibility for anything that happens under Reality of Wrestling's roof. Anything that happens outside of Reality of Wrestling, that is totally out of our hands. For this story to be written the way it was, I fired somebody over a stalking incident, that is not something that happened. We can't fire anybody because we don't hire anybody. These are independent contractors. We can book them and not book them. That's normally the way it works in this wrestling world."
Booker wrapped up the statement portion of comments by saying, "I'm willing to answer any and all questions because I'm not running and I'm not hiding from anybody as far as my integrity goes as far as Reality of Wrestling and what I've built for the last 20 years working with so many young women. My young women at Reality of Wrestling, if they ever make it to the next level, I make sure I tell them, 'If anybody treats you differently than I treated you, you call me because I know that's not the right way to be treated.' I treat all of my females at my facility like they are my daughter. I hold that with the utmost respect with anybody who comes into my school."
Booker T's co-host Brad Gilmore then questioned Booker on certain aspects of the story.
Gilmore began by noting Rose's claim that she was told that ROW would have armed security and cameras to help prevent issues, which she says also didn't end up happening. Gilmore asked if more safety precautions were taken after the incident.
Booker replied by saying, "Yeah, not just for her safety but for everybody in the building. My family is working day-to-day operations as well. We have students in and out of the gym on a daily basis. After that incident, we had armed security as well as adding cameras to the facility."
Gilmore then asked about the no-trespassing decree that Rose claimed was not issued to Reed.
"We did that as well. It's on paper. It's in black and white," said Booker. "This goes back to 2020. Shawn Reed was asked to leave Reality of Wrestling's property back in 2020. It goes back quite some time as far as him not being part of Reality of Wrestling. That's why I feel this was a police issue more so than it was a Reality of Wrestling issue, as far as everything went. The mall had a report for this kid to not show up. I don't know how long. I know you can't get something like that indefinitely. As far as a temporary restraining order for this kid to not be on the property, yes."
Later in the show, Gilmore did read the Criminal Trespass Warning that the Mainland City Center in Texas issued. According to the warning, Reed was given verbal and written notice that he was required to leave the property and not return and that if he does return, he will face arrest and be charged with trespassing. The document was reviewed on December 18, 2022 and the length of the property ban is a lifetime ban.
From the original article:
Fightful obtained conversations as far back as August 2021, where it was indicated to Reed that his behavior was an issue. Reed had cited that Rose had "manipulated him into thinking she was single," despite it being widely known in the company that she was in a long-term relationship. A ROW official, who Rose said was Kevin Bernhardt instead urged Reed to train at Premier, as his attendance at ROW had been sparse as is. Reed claimed he was bullied and had extenuating circumstances, but was still urged to leave. Rose told Fightful that Bernhardt knew Rose performed at Premier, and still encouraged Reed to go there instead. We reached out to Bernhardt about the story, but did not hear back. Rose told Fightful that Bernhardt was supposed to inform Booker T – the face and owner of Reality of Wrestling – but did not do so.
On March 5, 20220 Rose was wrestling at the Houston Premier Arena, when Reed arrived. When Fightful spoke with Blake Jones, he claimed that he had Reed ejected from the venue, and made a comment alluding to harming people in the venue. An incident report was filed on March 7, and on March 10, ROW official Kevin Bernhardt instructed Reed not to come to an upcoming event that Rose would be featured on. Reed contacted Bernhardt again on June 27, 2022 for permission to attend an upcoming show, but Bernhardt denied him in what appeared to be an amicable exchange.
When asked about the lack of communication between Booker ROW officials, Booker said, "I'm not going to sit and say something didn't happen and someone didn't feel like they may feel a certain way. I'm not going to question that. I can't say Raychell Rose didn't feel the way she did. As far as being able to communicate to someone, I thought Raychell Rose and my wife had a connection and I thought they talked on a regular basis. My wife is at the school more than I am, and Raychell could have easily called me and said something about it if something was going on. I'm not dismissing Kevin Bernhardt or anybody for not telling me there is an issue going on. I do know that Kevin released Shawn Reed from Reality of Wrestling in 2020. It was out of our hands as far as that went. It was a police matter. It didn't have anything to do with Reality of Wrestling."
From the original article:
Booker T, who was not aware of the situation, or Reed himself, encountered Reed in the parking lot. The claim from talent at Reality of Wrestling was that Reed had made threats on himself as well as implied to Booker directly he'd considered attacking others at the school, with some claiming that he even mentioned shooting up the venue. We're told that Booker walked Reed back into the venue after he'd been ejected, in what he claimed was an effort to calm Reed down and prevent him from doing anything "crazy."
When asked about bringing Reed into the Reality of Wrestling show, Booker said, "As far as Shawn Reed goes, I didn't know anything about any of this with Shawn Reed and Raychell Rose until that night. The person that told me about it was Shawn Reed. I was walking out in front of the building, it was before the show started, and he walked up to me. I hadn't seen this kid in two years. He said the incident that happened with him and Raychell Rose, he said he didn't want to date her anymore, he said he just wanted to be part of Reality of Wrestling. It was something he had a passion for after the last four years, and he lost it after he left the school. He said, 'is it possible for me to watch the show?' This kid, telling me he's been going through ups and downs since he left the school, he's been depressed. My thing is, I want to help this kid. I'm not going to throw this kid under the bus and just throw him out. I said, 'let me bring this kid in. I need to keep this kid close to me.' I gave him a nice big hug, just to get a feel of him. I brought him and let him watch the show. He watched the show and left that show peacefully. Nothing happened within that two and a half hours."
Asked if Reed had a weapon on him, Booker said, "That's not true. The place he sat, I made sure he was watched by an armed guard and six other people. I made sure of that. I got instinct. I could have easily let Shawn Reed leave the building that night and he left in a depressed state and something really happened that night, but nothing happened at Reality of Wrestling."
When asked about the allegations of stalking and if he was aware, Booker said, "Not stalking. He made aware that he did not want to date her. He said, 'I don't want to date her, I just want to be part of Reality of Wrestling. This is something I've missed for the last four years.' That's what my concern was. My concern was the kid. I didn't know about her issue. Maybe had I been aware of her issue, I would have taken just as much consideration. I do know that I have a kid in front of me that going through something, and I have to make a rash decision right now. He hasn't done anything, so I can't call the police on him. I have to do something myself. I made a decision and I think the decision that I made was right because nothing happened at Reality of Wrestling."
Gilmore then asked for clarification on when he spoke to Rose regarding Reed and his behavior.
"Outside of the Reality of Wrestling front door. Raychell Rose came up to me and told me Shawn Reed was here and he shouldn't be here. I told her, 'You can't tell Shawn Reed to leave the bar, the bar owner would have to do that. He would have to have a restraining order. Just go somewhere else, please, for tonight. We need to diffuse this situation.' Something could really happen if this kid is as deranged and crazy as she's making it out to be. I need her to go home. Just like I would tell one of my kids, 'Go home tonight.' She chose to go there. Her and a couple of other people. They chose to go there. All of this is on video. I'm not making up any stories. I don't want anybody to think I'm trying to throw anybody under the bus here. Raychell Rose is one of my students for a long time. My wife helped her on so many occasions. I've helped her on so many occasions. This is what we do. We help young people. We're not here to try and hurt them," said Booker. "After this incident happened, and I specifically asked Raychell Rose, vehemently, 'Please, do not go over there. Go somewhere else tonight so we can diffuse this.' She literally did the opposite of what I asked her to do. Of course that made me feel a certain way just because, after this incident happened, and I walked back into that chaos, I was fortunate that as little damage was done as it was."
Booker said that he wishes he would have known about the incident sooner and he would have done something about it sooner. Booker said Raychell could have talked to him and Sharmell prior to any incident and that anyone who has any issues at Reality of Wrestling has an open line to him or Sharmell.
Speaking on Rose's departure from the promotion, Booker said, "After that, a phone call happened between Raychell and I. I would think it was an amicable decision as far as us not working together anymore. Obviously, she didn't understand me and I didn't understand her. Maybe it was something where we could have taken a break. No one ever said to Raychell Rose, 'You're fired.' That's not a word we use at Reality of Wrestling because we don't hire people. Raychell Rose, if she would have did what I asked, she says it, 'I remember him saying go somewhere else, but we have a tradition to go to the bar.' If we have a tradition to go to the bar, we have a problem. I'm trying to help you and save your life. That was disregarded."
Booker reiterated that things could have been handled differently had he known about any issues prior to December 2022.
"There hasn't been an incident at Reality of Wrestling in 20 years. We've never had to call the police in 20 years for any incident at Reality of Wrestling after, during, or before a show. This is the only incident. In 20 years, this is the only incident, that happened December 2022. This is not something that happened yesterday. I wish this story would have come out in December 2022. It would be a whole lot more accurate facts. More people that can vouch. It should have happened back then.
"This is the first and only time we've ever had a situation like this. I think if someone would have come to myself or my wife with a stalking allegation, the first thing we would have said is, 'We need to get the police involved.' That's not something we can handle ourselves. That's an internal problem that we can handle ourselves. Only thing we could do is remove this kid from the school, which we did in 2020."
Booker said it would not have been a problem to get the police involved if he was presented with any allegations prior to December 2022.
Asked if he thought he could have done anything differently on that night, Booker replied, "Even if I was clairvoyant, I don't think there would have been anything I could have done to change that situation other than try to make sure everybody went home safe that night. I think if everybody listened to me, it's documented what I said to Raychell Rose, she said it herself. I asked her, 'Please don't go over there and confront a person who is perhaps a stalker and has mental problems. Don't do that. Something could happen and someone could get hurt. I don't need anybody getting hurt. Go somewhere else that night so we can diffuse the situation and get the police involved,' because to my knowledge, the police hadn't been involved."
Shawn Reed posted a statement on Facebook regarding the incident, which can be read at the bottom of this article.
Fightful will update fans when more is known.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
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Editor's note:
After having contact with Rose, Booker T was immediately spoken to for his side of the story, over three weeks prior to publication.
We did speak with him, got limited answers. He was frustrated by the timing of the story, and curious as to why it emerged over a year later, as he outlined in his quotes. He was of the belief that it was related to Reality of Wrestling talent being told they couldn't work other local indies and some displeasure around that leading to the news emerging.
Booker T used the terminology "fired" in relation to Rose, and when we asked why that happened, he indicated that it was an internal reason. We asked him to elaborate, and he said that he didn't have to.
When we spoke to Booker, he'd not mentioned warning talent not to go to the bar, but said they should have went elsewhere if they saw Reed present.
We can confirm that several sources at the scene of the brawl said that Sharmell seemed very helpful towards them.
To clarify: Shawn Reed did not claim he brought a gun to the show in which Rose was at, but stated on a Fightful post that he brought one to Reality of Wrestling in the past. Texas has very loose gun laws.
Fightful did obtain numerous messages sent to and from Reed, and correspondence with the police about Reed's behavior from well before the December 2022 incident took place.
