wrestling / Columns

Examining the Bullying Accusations Against Bill DeMott

March 5, 2015 | Posted by Mitch Nickelson

Bill DeMott’s last few days have been pretty terrible. But the big question to ask in the midst of all of this is…does he deserve it? Let’s run down what’s known so far.

Several developmental wrestlers have come forward alleging that NXT trainer Bill DeMott has been the epitome of bullying. He’s used derogatory terms to verbally abuse his students. He’s put them through workout regimens that placed his pupils at extremely high risk of injury. Also, he’s been straight up physically abusive. One accusation that highlights many of these allegations comes from former WWE developmental wrestler Kevin Matthews (@2CockyKM). Kevin was working through concussion symptoms and Bill treated it like he was simply whining.

“…[Bill Demott] accused me of making things worse. Which is not uncommon as Coach DeMott gets angry and standoffish at any sign of injury. The main part of this story that angers me is that as he was leaving the trainers room, Coach DeMott slapped me on top of the head. This really angered me as I don’t believe he has right to put hands on anyone especially like that. I was lucky that my head injury wasn’t too serious. His negligence in this situation could have worsened my injury.”

In defense of DeMott, WWE has released this statement…

“WWE took the accusations made two years ago by Austin Matelson very seriously, conducted a full investigation and was unable to validate the claims. Regardless, WWE continues to reinforce policies and procedures to ensure a positive training environment.”

Another defender of DeMott (briefly) was none other than Chris Jericho. In a tweet that he later deleted, he wrote…

“Hey @BillDeMott is a good friend & great trainer. If u can’t handle it then quit. My training at #HartBrothers camp was 10,000 times worse!”

Several wrestlers responded to Jericho. Two in particular have been Ethan Carter and Joey Ryan…

So the evidence keeps piling up and DeMott is losing more and more ground in the court of public opinion. I’ll have to pause at this point and reiterate that all of these claims still fall into the unpopular category of “allegedly,” regardless of how damning they might seem.

But even then, Bill DeMott is entitled to his due process. Does “Innocent until proven guilty” get waived just because the evidence looks pretty solid? Of course it doesn’t. Bill deserves a fair shot at explaining himself in light of his accusations. If he’s a bully then he has no business keeping his job. If the charges don’t hold water, then leave he and everyone involved can move on.

This is where WWE is dropping the ball. Their official statement in regards to the situation only looks like they’re protecting one of their own. Bill DeMott is looking like a ‘good ol’ boy’ that the top brass aren’t going to let go down over something they deem unworthy. Bill and many of his generation might view this whole problem as the new blood crying because they can’t hang with the ‘real men.’ Remember when Matt Cappotelli took a shellacking from Bob Holly? Crash Holly defended his former tag team partner by calling the Tough Enough contestant a crybaby. Surely we’ve arrived to a point in society where victims of abuse don’t have to fear speaking out against their attackers without being made the subject of ridicule, even if the victims are macho professional wrestlers.

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To play devil’s advocate, I see no problem with testing the new class of any profession to see who is serious and who are the weak links that need thinned out. Bill DeMott is being paid to train WWE wrestlers and the odds are against most of his recruits that they’re not going to become the next big star. Many will not have what it takes and many will quit before they find out if they have what it takes or not. If you can thin the herd quickly then you’re saving your company money and you’re saving yourself some sanity. But Bill might have pushed people in ways that were uncalled for. The generation of trainers who hurt their students just to see if they give whatever is deemed an appropriate amount of respect needs to be over.

In the meantime, Bill DeMott and #FireBillDeMott are trending on Twitter. If there’s more allegations to be made by current or former WWE employees then maybe they can speak now while they can have a degree of safety with public opinion on their side. What do you think? Is Bill simply getting a bad rap from those who couldn’t hack it or is he the vicious bully that he’s accused of being? Let your opinion be known in the comment section below or find me on Twitter @MitchNickelson and banter with me there.

And before I go I want to take a moment to remember Thomas Briggs. He passed away a few days ago in an unfortunate car accident and will be deeply missed. Thomas was a vital member the TJRWrestling.net community and hosted (along with his twin brother Aaron) one of my favorite podcasts, The Sharpshooter Cast. He loved wrestling and the community and died way too young at the age of 29. It’s strange how you can grow attached to people across the country that you’ve never met. When people offer up their opinions on this business that we love you can appreciate who they are. I listened to an hour of him and his brother talk wrestling every week for the past year and it was a real highlight of my week. It’s sad to know that the man behind the work that I enjoyed so much is gone. If you’re the praying type, please offer up his brother, his fiance, and the rest of friends and family up for comfort.