Speaking Out movement
movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault in professional wrestling
The Speaking Out movement is a social movement against emotional, physical and sexual abuse in the professional wrestling industry, where people publicize their allegations of misconduct committed by powerful and/or prominent individuals. Similar to other empowerment movements based upon breaking silence such as #MeToo, the purpose of #SpeakingOut (a hashtag that began to spread on Twitter in June 2020) is to empower wrestling-related people to tell their stories of abuse they have experienced.
History
On June 17, 2020, independent wrestler David Starr was accused of sexual assault by a former girlfriend of his, which he denied. After the allegation came out, several wrestling promotions stripped Starr of their championships and fired him.
The following day, numerous people in and out of the pro wrestling industry accused several wrestlers, promoters, personalities, and journalists of sexual misconduct. The hashtag "Speaking Out" began to spread on social media when people told their stories. #SpeakingOut was a trending topic on Twitter. It was soon reported that the allegations were being investigated by West Yorkshire Police.
Response
Many wrestlers, personalities, and journalists overwhelmingly supported those that spoke out on their experiences.
All Elite Wrestling
All Elite Wrestling (AEW) wrestler Jimmy Havoc was accused of emotional and verbal abuse by former partner, Rebecca Crow.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Speaking Out movement” as movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault in professional wrestling. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault in professional wrestling. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q96465989. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2020.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Speaking Out movement” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.