wrestling / News
UPDATED: Joey Mercury Accuses ROH GM of Unsafe Environment & Mistreating Talent After Exiting Company
UPDATE: Mercury has posted a new tweet showing Gilleland messaging him, asking him to discontinue divulging personal conversations and information
When I admit I am in the wrong, I learn. I don’t know it all. Humility is useful. I’ve learned every hour of my life. I’m under no contract. If you aren’t able to say something to someone’s face like a big boy, then you probably need to build character 1st. Discontinue yours, too pic.twitter.com/bShi91NIyn
— mercury in retrograde (@JOEYnRetrograde) November 1, 2019
ORIGINAL Joey Mercury’s departure from ROH has not been quiet, as he went on an extended Twitter rant attacking the company and General Manager Greg Gilleland on Friday morning with allegations that talent is mistreated within the company. In the posts, which you can see below, Mercury went in details on what he said are behind-the-scenes issues including an unsafe working environment for talent, a lack of or insufficient security and medical personnel and more.
In the post, Mercury shares snippet of conversations he had with Gilleland over text and accuses Gilleland of being responsible for an unsafe working environment in ROH, both in and out of the ring, with no medical staff and no women on the creative team. He claims that Gilleland his contract is non-binding and “will not stand in court,” noting that he quit the company even with zero offers rather than work for Gilleland.
Mercury then claims that Shane Taylor will not be re-signed and will be out of the company as of the beginning of the year, but had not been informed of this. He calls Gilleland a “liability” to the company and says that when Gilleland found out that Jay Lethal broke his arm, he was “literally pre or post nap in a car service.” Mercury alleges that Lethal had been unable to get his hotel room because the travel person screwed up.
He also says that Gilleland “soured on Alex Shelley” after he knowingly and willingly paid Shelley to complete his Certified Athletic Trainer certification, and that despite Gilleland’s skepticism about him Shelley came back and “helped countless talent in the locker room.” He says that Flip Gordon’s elbow dislocation had to be treated by himself with help of Bandido and Brody King because ROH was unable to get him proper medical care in time.
Mercury also says Gilleland “preyed upon” Bandido, trying to manipulate him and use the fact that English isn’t his first language to take advantage of him.
He goes on to say that ROH has not implemented any standard operating procedures regarding concussions, and let Kelly Klein to travel to South Africa to compete because she said she was “better” and without her being medically cleared.
Mercury shows examples of messages where Gilleland has accused him of being high at shows, which he denies, and notes that Gilleland never checked in with him or asked him to submit a drug test. He also notes that people from Sinclair Broadcast Group and GVP have asked him for some of his prescribed psychiatric medications that they are not prescribed, and says he has proof.
Leaving off the screenshots, Mercury then said that the infamous Bully Ray/fan incident where Ray was accused of intimidating a fan who was brought to the back after yelling derogatory things at female stars happened because Rey was forced to make a judgment call due to a lack of security present.
Mercury then says that “hypothetically” Shane Taylor and Bandido’s contracts are done as of the first of January, and PJ Black’s is done on February 1st.
He has since shared posts by Kelly Klein and BJ Whitmer supporting him. Klein said that Mercury tried to guide the company to positive changes and gave up when he saw he didn’t have the support he needed, noting that “I’m scared I will get in trouble for saying something in public about it. But the reports I’ve seen are wrong. He is the best coach I ever had. I partly stayed there so I could keep learning from him. He looked out for us and he tried to make it better.”
Whitmer, for his part, said, “From someone that actually worked in that office with Greg Gilleland, everything Joey is saying is 100% true.”
ROh has yet to comment on the story.
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