A week after she became professional wrestling’s Public Enemy Number One for seemingly injuring another luchadora on purpose, Mexican wrestler Sexy Star has broken her silence in a long statement posted to her Twitter account over Labor Day Weekend. In it, the woman born Dulce Garcia seems to throw blame at everyone but herself for the incident, as well as doubling down on a victim narrative–both with regards to social media “abuse” and media coverage of the event–that seeks to frame the whole thing as a misunderstanding of the kind common in wrestling.
Reddit user Telescopy went through and translated the full statement, and it is a doozy. Curiously, Sexy Star never refers to any of her opponents in the four-way match by name; Rosemary, the wrestler she injured, is called “the North American wrestler” throughout (she’s Canadian). According to Sexy Star, because Rosemary was seen walking off under her own power, it meant that the injury has been overblown on social media. She also states that after the match she went over to talk to Rosemary (previous reports said that AAA made her apologize), and that she noticed no paramedics attending to Rosemary: “There were no paramedics or anybody else attending to her. There was a stretcher, which is standard protocol when there are suspicions of injury, but she wasn’t even sitting on it which made me feel relieved because I saw with my own eyes that she was fine, that she wasn’t injured.”
It makes sense that Sexy Star would both throw blame off herself and focus on backstage moments where the public wasn’t around; however, one thing she never addresses (and in fact contradicts in the statement) is what happened in the ring. Sexy Star claims that she was told to finish the match with the armbar, as it’s one of the safest moves in wrestling when done correctly. She also states that she held the hold until the ref stopped the match, then let go. Those two statements are true, but what she ignores–and what is clearly visible to anyone watching the video of the incident–is that Sexy Star applies the hold again afterwards, and yanks the arm harder than she had previously; by all accounts, this is the moment when Rosemary was injured (an injury that is less serious than first expected, as the tricep tear that was feared has been confirmed to be a strained bicep and tricep).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JR7aD9AEqA
Instead of even addressing it, Sexy Star decided to throw blame at “North American” wrestlers spreading Rosemary’s claim that she was purposefully injured, and even takes the opportunity to channel a certain President in decrying the “media that weren’t there that night, media that didn’t cover the event, media that doesn’t even work in Mexico.” Yes, “fake news” appears to be her last line of defense here. Unfortunately for her, there is very clear evidence that, at the very least, she’s not telling the full truth in her statement; at worst, she’s deliberately lying to save face after going viral for injuring Rosemary.
For their part, AAA had been silent until late Sunday night, when they tweeted out that Sexy Star’s Reina de Reinas title had been declared vacant. The initial reaction was positive for the company, and probably one that they needed, as this entire situation was a PR nightmare for them.
However, after the first wave of praise washed over social media, a smaller rumbling of cynicism began to sweep through; AAA has, in the past, protected Sexy Star by vacating the title twice, and it’s certainly possible that they are doing the same now; after all, the current #1 contender for the belt is Lady Shani, who allegedly also went rogue on Sexy Star during the match. Could it be that AAA is helping their crown jewel avoid what could be a very real ass-beating in order to set up a redemption storyline down the line? It, sadly, would not be out of character for the company; one need only look at the Taya incident from earlier this summer to see how they have use the “vacate the belt” tactic for less-than-reputable reasons.
Continuing on that, the company announced a five-way match for the vacant Reina de Reinas title, which features Lady Shani; if she does not win the belt there, it would appear to be further evidence that the company is just avoiding a Shani-Sexy Star match that could bring them even more negative press, in Mexico and abroad. Or, perhaps, the company truly is in conflict with Sexy Star’s version of the TripleMania events, and is punishing her appropriately. That would be a first for the Mexican promotion, but it would be a step in the right direction towards guaranteeing the safety of its workers.
