Pro Wrestling EVE Owner Dann Read Issues Statement on Paul Robinson Working as a Producer After Online Backlash Towards Will Ospreay & The Company

As noted before, Will Ospreay and all-women’s indies promotion Pro Wrestling EVE recently was dealing with online backlash over Ospreay revealing that controversial British indies wrestler Paul Robinson worked as a producer for the company at their Wrestle Queendom VIII event this past Sunday. Robinson had been accused of grooming an underage wrestler in 2014 in Germany.

Pro Wrestling EVE owner Dann Read recently issued an official statement on EVE’s official discord about the situation and the online backlash his company has received over their involvement with Robinson.

Read’s official statement:

“Okay, so… I’m not going to discuss this in places like Twitter or do “official statements” or anything like that – all I can do is talk on here as me like I always do. Whilst I’m sure there are genuine concerns from some people there like there are here, the way things escalate there quickly makes real conversation impossible. What we’ve built here is different.

I’ve now gone through everything above, and just want to say first off thank you to those who didn’t jump straight into attacking or trying to turn things into gotchas, and instead voiced concerns and asked for clarity. That genuinely makes a big difference.

Clearly some naivety on my part played a role here and I’m sorry if anyone had questions or concerns and didn’t feel comfortable asking me. That’s the exact opposite of the environment I want.

Paul has been back around the scene for a long time and at EVE he has been sat with the other producers in full view of anyone attending shows, on a raised staging area no less, so it isn’t a case of trying to hide him as I think someone above suggested. Quite the opposite, he’s been there in full view for almost a year.

The reason I’ve quoted Dev’s post is because both posts he put reflect the situation as I understand it, and as others in the scene including people within EVE understand it as well. I’ve seen some people say it was something he admitted to, but that has always been denied and there seems to be a lot of confusion around that point online.

I’d like to think, and I think a lot of you do judging by how kind people have been above, that I do my best to be as open as I can. What I can say is that I would never knowingly bring anyone into EVE if there was evidence they were a danger, or if they were someone not wanted there. And while I obviously can’t claim to speak for every single person, I think it’s pretty clear from how cast and crew interact with him that he has their support.

And honestly, I know some people will say that makes me naïve, but I don’t think the kind of support and relationships you see around EVE are something you can fake like this. You saw it yourselves this weekend. I don’t think Wrestle Queendom happens the way it did if there was some other feeling hanging over the place. If anything, the candid backstage photos people have been sharing, the interactions at the after-party etc probably show that better than anything that this is real.

I don’t think there’s a unicorn solution here that will appease everyone and I won’t claim this will suddenly fix things for everyone. At the end of the day this comes down to trust and people’s word, and if some people feel they have to tap out here – I get it, I do. But the statements shared above reflect the character that many people know, and I can’t in good conscience hold things against someone that do not seem to be accurately represented. So I have to believe we are doing the right thing in standing by that.”