On Thursday, April 26, Teddy Hart was arrested in Richmond, Virginia and charged with strangulation resulting in wounding/bodily harm. Hart's girlfriend, ROH wrestler Maria Manic, was named as the victim.
News of the altercation between Hart and Manic, and Hart's arrest, first emerged online when independent wrestler Ace Montana posted a video of him confronting Hart where he stated that he had to pull a gun on Hart and alleged, "This piece of shit literally choked out and physically assaulted Maria Manic and would not let her get help."
Taking to YouTube, Maria Manic gave her side of things.
"Let me start by saying that I'm perfectly fine. I promise," she began.
"Ted was over and we were arguing about something. It was something silly. Ted has been training me to fight in the past, so a lot of the time we do fight, but it's out in the living room on pads, so we know that we're fighting. But, sometimes, if we are in a real fight, like a verbal fight, we will throw in wrestling moves and it's funny. We know we're joking. It gets tricky with that sometimes because you don't know what crosses the line. We got in some fight and he ended up taking my phone and holding it in front of me, which pissed me off. That's what I was upset about, 'why are you taking something that belongs to me?' I guess, when I went to grab the phone, he said I smacked him. I don't remember smacking him, but I guess I did something that made him think I was trying to get physical, which I wasn't. [That] led to him putting me in some sort of chokehold. I sat through it a little bit. I was testing myself. I wanted to see how long can I survive in a chokehold? I sat in it, then I tapped out, and he let go. To me, everything was good. The fight happened, he let me out, we're all good."
Manic continued, "I don't know what happened that led to him putting me in another chokehold. This one hurt pretty bad. I held on for as long as I could and I tried to tap, but I guess I wasn't tapping him, I was tapping myself. He ended up holding on a lot longer than he should have, which scared me, a lot. I told him after that, 'I'm freaked out, I need you to leave the house for a little bit.' That's usually what the rule is. If we're in an argument, one of us just leaves the house. He didn't want to do that, so I'm thinking I need someone else to talk to him. I'm thinking it would be better if a man did it. I texted my friend Ace. I thought he could come by and clam him down. And just having a third person there, I knew by the time he got here that everything would probably be fine, but I thought it would be good to have a third person here to hang out with us for a bit, just to kinda calm the air.
"I didn't think I was in any more physical harm. He wasn't attacking me or trying to do anything to me. I just didn't want us to verbally argue anymore because that's what I don't like. I don't mind physical abuse....there was no physical abuse. It was a choke, I was fine, I promise. I'm the one out here fighting with the men, trying to be accepted. Who am I to say it's domestic abuse? If you're going to call it anything, call it aggravated assault, please. Don't call it domestic abuse."
Manic said that she didn't want Ace pulling a gun on Hart and didn't know he was filming the confrontation with him. She just wanted Ace there to calm things down without it getting worse and wanted Teddy to walk away from the house. She also didn't want anyone knowing of the situation.
"When Ace came back into the house, he was like, 'I called the cops.' I was like, 'Oh my God, that is not what I wanted.' I am not a cop caller. I've learned a lot in the multiple lives I've lived and cop calling is not a good move, unless you feel it's really necessary. I did not feel it was necessary. I was perfectly fine. I had some marks on my neck, but I've had much worse marks from wrestling matches," she stated.
When the cops arrived, she told them the truth about the altercation and them wrestling/fighting, saying she was fine. She did say Teddy went too far, but had no interest in pressing charges against him. However, the cops still arrested Teddy due to the marks on Maria's neck. She still has no interest in pressing charges and will explain that to the lawyer.
On the subject of Ace posting the video online, she said, "I saw he posted the video on his Facebook of Ted outside. I'm like, 'that's so disrespectful that you did that and didn't even ask me. Did you just do this just so you can get some publicity out of it?' Do it so you can be the hero to me, not the internets hero. You're supposed to come here and save the day for me and Ted, not for some fame you thought you were going to get from it. I said, 'Please, delete that video. I don't want that anywhere.'"
Unfortunately, once the video was posted, because its the internet, it lives forever. She questioned the motives of Ace, but did say she appreciates that he came over when she texted him, she was just upset about the way he handled things with the video and him calling the cops. She is also upset that Hart is currently in jail.
"It's upsetting that Ted has to sit in jail right now for that. Hopefully, I can fix it. If I can't, he has to learn. I'm not defending what he did. I'm not saying what he did was okay. He went too far and you've got to be careful with that kind of stuff and make sure that I know that we're wrestling. Because sometimes we draw the line where life gets too real where I don't know if we're playing or we're serious. That is his fault and he needs to be more clear with that. But, please keep in mind, I am a very different case. So when I say, 'I was choked out, I'm fine.' If it were any other girl, it's not fine. But with me, I put myself in a position where I say, 'I wanna learn how to fight for real. I want to learn how to fight on the street,' is what I told him a long time ago. I wanna be able to defend myself in any situation. Me and Ted live interesting lives where you have to know how to do that, sometimes. I know that he was not trying to hurt me. If he was trying to hurt me, he would punch me in the face. He wouldn't choke me out," she said.
Manic says it's none of our business if she and Hart stay together following this incident.
Hart is currently being held without bail at Richmond City Jail with a hearing scheduled for April 22 at 2:15 p.m. ET.
You can watch Manic's entire statement in the video above.
If you use any of the quotes above, please give a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
