Both Joey Ryan and Dave Crist are believed to be done with Impact Wrestling due to accusations that have been made against both of them, Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com is reporting. Johnson noted that Impact has footage of Ryan that hasn’t aired on television yet but it’s unknown if the company will still use it. Cancel Culture (Ryan’s faction) vs. Crazzy Steve and two mystery partners was scheduled to air this week.
In regards to Crist, he was reportedly already on the verge of being cut prior to accusations coming out over the weekend. Johnson wrote the following:
“There had been a near-universal stance against him in recent months and at the last TV tapings (where he was turned on by his brother Jacob and left laying), Dave Crist was not even allowed to dress in the locker room.”
Several people have spoken out against Crist including Twitter user @_ladyofthe_lake:
“December 2019 I received a dm from Dave Crist. I didn’t know much about him other than he was in a wrestling faction with a friend of mine and he was well known in the Ohio indie scene. I was never really a big fan or anything so the dm was surprising. He thanked me for repping Ohio wrestling and I just thanked him and didn’t think anything of it. Fast forward to a couple months later and me and a friend were at the February Revolver show. Dave had kept liking my posts since he DM’d me but o knew he was in a relationship and I just wasn’t interested so I ignored it. Before the show he tried to get my attention when I would walk past his booth in the lobby area but I didn’t say anything to him. I’m big on vibes and I just didn’t get a comfortable feeling from him so I had no desire to talk to him. I would start conversation with my friends who are also wrestlers when he’d come near so I didn’t have to talk to him. During the main event, my friend and I went up to the front to see the action and he found us. He stood right next to me. I kept trying to move forward or to another spot but he followed. During the match, their was a spot where the fans chanted “Suck his dick”, something that had just started being a trend. When they were saying this, he kept looking at me and raising his eyebrows and trying to get closer, trying to rub against me. I took my friend’s hand and left the area, just going out to the lobby again I stuck with Trey and Austin the rest of the night so he couldn’t get me alone. I was truly afraid of that happening. Normally I would’ve said something to Sami but I knew it was a hard night for him so I didn’t want to bother him. I guess I should’ve said something so that’s on me. Well a few months later, I was in a situation with another wrestler and I was upset. I made a vague tweet about how some wrestlers try to use women (that I deleted right away) and again, got a dm from him. He begged me to tell him who it was and what happened. I said I didn’t want to because I don’t like drama so I said no. But he kept asking so eventually I told him so he’d stop. He tried to comfort me and it was just weird. I felt he was trying to take advantage of a situation so I stopped responding. The next I heard from him was after I had posted a selfie on Twitter. It was during the wtad hashtag but it wasn’t very revealing because I wasn’t comfortable doing that. (Also I realize I shouldn’t have to clarify that but this society makes me feel like, as a woman, I have to.) He saw the picture and DM’d me saying “You better quit”. Seeing that I had a pit in my stomach because I knew what he meant. But I still asked what he was talking about. He said “These thirst traps.” He told me he watched my stuff and liked what he saw. I responded saying that wasn’t my intention and they weren’t thirst traps. He just said either way, he liked it. Again, I was creeped because he has a gf and we weren’t friends, there was no reason for him to be telling me what to post or comment on my body. He then changed the topic to the Browns and I responded for a bit before I quit. A few weeks later, I tweeted how I wanted a Nick Chubb Jersey. He sent me another dm asking what size I wanted. I said it was a joke, he didn’t need to get me a jersey. But he insisted and kept asking for details. I guess I was naive but I said ok and told him what size and evervthing. He said he had a hookup in and everything. He said he had a hookup in the merch store so it wouldn’t put him out any. Well I should’ve known better because when I thanked him, he said “Just do me a favor.” My stomach dropped because that’s never good. I said it depended on what the favor was. He said all I had to do was go to a game with him this season. I was not at all comfortable being alone with him so I said that wouldn’t work since I’m moving to Chicago before the end of the summer. He said he had season tickets so he’d make it work. He was trying to bribe me with a jersey to hangout with him. I just stopped talking again and blocked him. I even sent screenshots of all the DMs to someone I trust because I was afraid I was overreacting. Something women are told a lot when they say they’re uncomfortable. But he knew Dave and he confirmed that I wasn’t. That this was not uncommon when it came to Dave and he was known in the back for being inappropriate towards women. (To be clear, it was not known the extent of what Dave was doing to this person or any of my other friends who know him. Just that he tried to mess around with girls other than his gf.)
I’ve held off talking about this because I was afraid of people saying I’m at fault. That I shouldn’t have responded or should’ve voiced my discomfort more forcefully or whatever. But men that say that stuff to victims don’t understand that women are afraid to be assertive about their discomfort to predators because they don’t want to anger them and risk getting hurt. Instead of confronting him, I tried to avoid him. At Revolver, I was lucky to have friends who he didn’t want to risk knowing his games. Not everyone gets that lucky. If they weren’t there, I don’t think he would’ve left me alone and it scares me to think what would’ve happened.”
Also want to thank @_hernameismax_ and her resilience during all of this. Without seeing her share and advocate for others the past couple days, I would’ve kept this all to myself and continued to think I was overreacting. #SpeakingOut
[2/2] pic.twitter.com/XzaLEiF4vA— ?? (@_ladyofthe_lake) June 21, 2020
