Velveteen Dream has been released from WWE NXT after a year of controversy, and there is plenty of reaction. Rob is here to offer his perspective!

So the Velveteen Dream is no more.  After a year of tone deaf attempts to ride things out the WWE finally released Patrick Clark thus ending what was a meteoric rise that eventually became a abrupt fall.  While one can understand why they did not fire him just off allegations that revealed no illegalities, someone there should have figured out sooner that he was not going to overcome the souring of his most loyal fans on him.  Each time they tried to slip him back on the show the social media response made it clear that he was not wanted anymore.

Yes he had so much potential that like most employers the WWE was not going to just shove him out the door right away, but the best thing would have been to keep him off of TV because we damn sure didn’t want to see him there.  I couldn’t tell you if keeping him this long actually hurt their bottom line but it damn sure couldn’t have helped.  To paraphrase the chairman of that company, Patrick screwed Patrick.

This may be the all time worst bag fumbling of all time.  Patrick Clark had everything you would look for in a sports entertainer, and was on the road to one day headlining WrestleMania, but now it’s gone.  And it’s no one’s fault but his own.  His long winded attempt at telling his side of the story still left him in a position where at best he has shown horrendous judgment when it comes to contacting minors (real simple rule there: DON’T DO IT) while not closing the door to the possibility that the worst is true.  While he denies any wrongdoing he’s left enough holes in his story that there’s no reason to take him at his word.

The allegations from April 20, 2020 have effectively derailed any upward momentum I had professionally. And has ultimately resulted in my termination with WWE. My name is Patrick Clark, not the Velveteen Dream. Velveteen Dream is a character that I have spent years developing and trying to bring to life. The success of the Dream character relied heavily on kayfabe, my ability to blur Patrick Clark from Tough Enough with this over the top personality.

The character was conceptualized the day Prince passed, April 21, 2016. I knew nothing about him at that time, but my thinking was that I could use my interpretation of Prince to create an onscreen personality vastly different from who I am as a person. *Cue Velveteen Dream: A Sexually Ambiguous, Gender Fluid, Self Absorbed Diva. And as I learned more about Prince I began to tame certain aspects of the character. Aspects that I deemed way too over the top and inconsistent with who Prince was as a performer. Now before I unpack, I will say, I’ve enjoyed the many stories I’ve been able to share on camera and I’m grateful to the many people who trusted me with their safety and wellness.

Thank you to any and everybody who enjoyed and allowed me to be my character, whether you paid a ticket or walked up on me in Walmart. My goal was to provide you with the same escape that I was offered when I first started watching. My job was to play a character and to help advance storylines and drama for the fans who cared to tune in. I take any job I have seriouslym which is why I’ve remained silent about these allegations. To me addressing rumors would be working against an already compromised ability to sell a character I’ve invested in so heavily. After I had been accused, I was given the opportunity to be in a storyline that lasted a few months and I worked in a few segments unrelated to the story arch, but now I feel comfortable in this position to share with you the details of my accusations.

The night of April 20, from my verified Instagram account I postde a story to my followes letting them know that my DMs had been open. I received a few different messages ranging from support, to heckling, and some inquiring about how to get started in pro wrestling. I responded to a few, but not all, and in ther conversation Jaccob shared his interest in working as a wrestler one day and asked whart steps would be required. I messaged a short list of things he should consider if he was serious: Physique and Promo to start, Physique, because as an independent contractor no-one is going to make you train and eat in a way that creates the aesthetic of a believable pro wrestler. And promo because our job is to sell drama, and you can’t rely on someone flipping channels to stop to watch a choreographed fight, you’re more likely to grab their attention looking into a camera with a strong impassioned 30 second monologue. I also inquired about which schools he was closest to in relation to wrestling training, his weight, and his height.

Jaccob explained how anxious he felt messaging me and asked me to verify it was really me. I did find it strange, because I have a blue check, but as a lifelong fan I remember meet and greets and the days I would message wrestlers hoping to be seem, so I chalked it up to his innocence and sent a voice message in my Velveteen Dream voice, as to keep kayfabe, The full voice message has me asking Jacob about his height, weight, where he trained, and what school he attended. Which Jaccob answered back with a voice message and I continued to answer his questions until I politely wrapped up the conversation. April 21 I woke up to notifications of tags of created screenshots and videos of a conversation I didn’t have with Jaccob. I immediately contacted WWE’s talent relations and social media departments as to begin an investigation. Even after the investigation, WWE released a statement maintaining my innocence. The part that hurt for me was having a personal picture that I’ve used in my personal life, on apps, being used to label me as a predator. I am in now way of the word a predator. This is the first and only time I’ve been accused of solicitation to anyone.

Until I was accused of grooming by Joshua Fuller, unlike Jaccob, I know Josh. I met Josh after my stint on Tough Enough in (2015) at a meet and greet. And we developed a friendship through a mutual trainer at GXW. Josh shared to Twitter screenshots of the first time we communicated through text (2016), and autographed picture from when we met, and an extremely contradictory story. Josh alleged that I made him feel uncomfortable but contradicts himself twice by saying I was never sexual towards him. For those willng to research Josh’s tweet accusing me: Josh’s messages are in blue and mine in grey. Josh claimed that he was a 16-year-old high school graduate and that he takes “yearly trips” with his friend to Orlando, FL.

I doubted that when he told me, yet I kept my replies diplomatic and professional. The reality of the situation is that I was very helpful and respectful to Josh. Josh lives with his grandparents in rural southern Maryland. Josh got a concussion (2017) and against my advice, insisted on wrestling. My worry came from Josh severaly injurying himself, specifically his brain. I suggested he take time off from training to see a doctor. He declined because he believed he could work through the concussion, and I cut all communication with him in 2018 because I didn’t want to be partially responsible had he worsened his injury. So to have him accuse me of predatory behavior because I chose not to help was spiteful.

Josh and Jaccob are 2 of MANY people that I’ve helped. Yet these are the only two who have found me to be malicious and predatory in how I go about helping others. What wasn’t shared at the time

• • Josh Fuller reached out to Jaccob over social media before Josh put out his own accusation. When this came out Josh Fuller temporarily deleted his Twitter account @joshfullerpw
  • Which is important because in all the social media confusion, Josh Fuller is the only one who suggested that an investigation had not been done and that he had not been contacted.
  • Jaccob deleted his social media after he was outed for being a member of an anti-black group chat.
  • There is a public forum, wwe lpsg stars where people are buying, selling and sharing explicit photos and videos of multiple wrestlers and no-one has done anything to have this site taken down.

All in all this entire experience defamed my character and ultimately accomplished what it sought out to do and that was to see me released. My hope is that over time people can put 2 and 2 together and realize that all the allegations surrounding me were baseless and untrue from jump. I felt strongly about not needing to defend myself on social media for a while now, but I understand the audience I work for and those who know me deserve clarity. I’m thankful for the opportunities afforded to me and the memories I have as a receipt. GOD HAS ALWAYS HAD ME AND HE ALWAYS WILL. DREAM IS OFFICIALLY OVER

BUT Patrick Clark LIVES TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY

Transcription courtesy of WrestleTalk.

And we haven’t even begun to discuss the stories that are starting to filter out now about his complete and utter lack of professionalism, among other things, and the open secret that the NXT locker room pretty much has no use for him.  To be blunt he has no constituency at the job outside of those in management who were hoping to rehab his image.  And he has little if any support among the fanbase either.

As a Black wrestling fan I recognize that things are a lot better in 2021 than they were in 1985 when I started watching, or even since 2017 for that matter.  But we’re not a point yet where we take it for granted that there are going to be Black wrestlers at or near the top of the card.  Every retirement of one that has gotten there, and every one that doesn’t get there, can feel like a loss that may never be made up for.  Patrick Clark was supposed to be one of those who got there, and given his age he was supposed to stay there for a long time.

We’re talking about someone who could have had a 10 year Cena-esque run at/near the top, someone who Cena himself wanted to work with and Hulk Hogan tried to glom onto.  We were ready to be on board for the entire ride, and would have been in his corner through a lot of things.  But through his own decisions he squandered all that goodwill so we got nothing for him.

Now this loss of support didn’t just happen last week it happened a year ago when the second round of allegations came against him and it was clear that this guy has a problem and needs to be gone until he deals with it.  It’s a mixture of sadness, anger, and disappointment towards someone who had the wrestling world at his feet.  And for a year since then we’ve kept that sentiment even through HHH’s attempts to hide him for several weeks in what sure look like hopes that the heat would die down if there was no criminal investigation going on.  But it didn’t die down because quite frankly we felt betrayed by the man.  When he was first accused and said he was hacked and all, we rode with him despite whatever skepticism we may have had.  But when they came a second time with some receipts than that was it; the guy was asking for too much against what looked like some real proof and we weren’t going to be fools.  If he ultimately proved his innocence then great but he didn’t do that when he had the chance and all we got was a ‘well, he didn’t do anything illegal’ response from his boss.

So Patrick, go on and get gone.  You may not have done anything illegal in the state of Florida but you’ve sure done enough to be let go, and enough to lose whatever faith and trust we had in you.  We don’t want to see you anymore, and there isn’t anything that’s going to change that.  There’s no storyline, no opponent, and no character change that will fix that.  You blew it, Patrick.  Nobody wants to invest their allegiance, their emotions, and ultimately their money in a guy who’s given you every reason to believe that any day now could end up on an R. Kelly tape.  You could have been a contender, but that’s gone up in smoke.