On August 6th, 2022, TransGraps hosted their long awaited Wrestle Queerdom event in Milford, New Hampshire. The event itself drew 150 people in The Hampshire Dome. On the surface, this is a great success for a first time show.
There was controversy going into the event as the TransGraps account tweeted about Japanese star VENY sleeping. It is however in the aftermath that we are starting to see some bigger controversies. The Wrestle Queerdom event page posted a now deleted tweet talking about a future second event. Max The Impaler responds to the tweet with the following:
Maybe save the flexing until after ALL the talent is paid.
Max pulled out of the event, publicly stating not wanting to work with the event organizer. Once Max’s tweet went up, talent would begin to share their experiences around the event.
As the third person in this car load for the entire time, co-sign. This has been a mess of broken promises after broken promises https://t.co/CY0GweAFJb
— -KH💜 (@KotaHolliday) August 7, 2022
Cameron Saturn shared their experience of riding with Don’t Die Miles for over 30 hours transporting talent. They received no compensation for their effort after having been promised of it “…being covered.” Kota Holliday would quote tweet to corroborate the story provided as they rode with Miles and Cameron. Saturn even called their experience “…a mess of broken promises after broken promises.” A prominent name that has gone unpaid is New Zealand’s Candy Lee. In a tweet, Candy said she’s planning on “…[writing] up a think piece” if not paid.
https://twitter.com/candidlycandy_/status/1556370309342715904?s=21&t=ysxksq3WbNDwHkCFsuY1AA
Amid this, Pro Wrestling VIBE has announced they will no longer be working with TransGraps. As to the reasoning behind this, VIBE said in a tweet that “…professionalism and doing good business must come first always.” VIBE’s Grand Prize Championship was defended twice at the event in partnership with Transgraps.
Effective immediately, we terminating our working relationship with @TransGraps/@W_Queerdom after receiving numerous complaints and concerns from talent.
Despite our shared vision to make this scene a better place, professionalism and doing good business must come first always.
— Pro Wrestling VIBE (@PWVibe) August 7, 2022
Aiden Von Engeland would release a short thread discussing the event and organization behind it amongst other topics. Aiden started off crediting Sally of TransGraps for connecting with a community to rally behind a show like hers. He stated that the show happened due to the will of the talent on card “…[putting their] reputations on the line…” to make it a success. However, this happened with “…almost none of us [getting] what we were promised.”
Aiden shifted to the topic of management. He claimed “Even those of us that were allowed to help were kept at a distance…” as Sally kept important details from those who helped. One of those people being Sally’s mother. Von Engeland revealed Sally’s mother was taking on finances to make Wrestle Queerdom happen. In the end, he wished Sally well in her future endeavors and expressed wishes for Sally to learn and grow from this.
2/2 Please centre the talent here that expended energy and money to be at a show that meant the world to them
@SaturnCameron / @DontDieMiles are in need of funds to get back pic.twitter.com/0sbUYtJluc
— (he/him) AIDEN VE, PhD 🏳️⚧️🇬🇧 (@aiden_v_e) August 7, 2022
In the writing of this article, we’ve reached out to Transgraps and were told that a statement would be provided to us tomorrow. There is no knowing what will happen from for both Transgraps and Wrestle Queerdom. TransGraps is already hinting at a second Wrestle Queerdom event. All we can hope in the moment is that all the talent and personnel behind the event are properly compensated.
[…] the past 24 hours following TransGraps’ Wrestle Queerdom event, much controversy has bubbled to the surface. It was revealed that much of the talent involved went unpaid for their work. These include names […]