Puerto Rico's CWA Issues Statement On Booking Marty Scurll
Scurll was booked by the promotion for an October 23 event
Sep 28, 2021
It emerged last week that Puerto Rican professional wrestling promotion CWA had booked Marty Scurll for their 'Halloween Fan Fest' show on Saturday, October 23 in San Juan.
Beyond an unaired appearance at NJPW Strong tapings on January 22, 2021, Scurll has been inactive within wrestling since sexual assault allegations were made against him by a female during the Speaking Out movement. He was previously a talent and Joint Head Booker of Ring Of Honor but he and the promotion agreed to part ways in January 2021.
The female accused Scurll of sexually assaulting her following an IPW: UK after-show party in 2015. Scurll was 26-years-old at the time of the alleged incident. The female was 16-years-old.
Scurll addressed the allegations against him last year and claimed he and the female had a "brief consensual sexual encounter" but that he "did not become aware of her age until after the encounter." The female disputed that Scurll did not know how old she was, however.
Following CWA's announcement, AB Morales of Impacto Estelar reached out to the Puerto Rican promotion about their booking of Scurll.
Morales translated and paraphrased CWA's statement on Last Word on Pro Wrestling, within which the promotion noted they booked Scurll because of a prior "accord" from 2018 and CWA felt obligated to follow through on the agreement.
"We're fully aware of the allegations against him. However, we also felt obligated to come through on our 2018 agreement. International talent is hard to bring over these days and we felt caught between a rock and a hard place. We either follow up on our deal or risk gossip that this company doesn't follow up on its agreements," CWA wrote.
The promotion also claimed they looked into the allegations against Scurll, writing: "I looked into the matter for days. His two statements. The woman's statements. I didn't find a follow-up on the matter though after June 24 (when Scurll released his second statement). What we understand is that the age of consent in the UK is 16. I obviously do not condone the behavior, but legally, if there was consent between the two, then they are within their rights. Innocent until proven guilty. We know the risks booking him. We honestly expected a far more negative response locally.
"We know sexual assault is a horrible thing. We know the bad press bringing him in can get us. For most of us, it's about not going back on our word. We've had enough setbacks as is. We're a small company in very tough times. Scurll is struggling for work and came to us. If the investigation got serious again, we'd obviously cut things off. Same as with any other talent.
"Locally or internationally. If the agreement wasn't a factor, we would’ve just said no. But for now, we'll go with the mentality of 'innocent until proven guilty' and hope for the best. I've yet to see any follow-up on the matter legally since June of last year. I'm not saying the coast is clear, it's not like we're going after this big star when he's at a low price. But he asked us to follow up on our commitment from 4 years ago."
