Sammy Guevara uploaded a new video to his YouTube channel on Tuesday one day after AEW announced he would be suspended indefinitely without pay. For those who missed it, audio from a 2016 interview resurfaced on Monday showing Guevara joking about wanting to “rape” Sasha Banks. Both Guevara and Banks released statements on Monday morning, followed by AEW’s announcement.
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Guevara kicked things off by saying his vlog was going on hiatus and that he would be disappearing from social media for a while as he undergoes sensitivity training. He then apologized several times for what happened.
“I just want to apologize to anyone I let down, to Sasha, to anyone I hurt with my words. It just sucks because 2016 me is not me today,” Guevara said. “2020 me would never say those kind of hurtful things that I did in 2016. I used to think it was funny to do some kind of shock humor, to pop the room I’m in. I thought it’d be funny to do this kind of shock humor. And it’s not. I learned along the way, a lot has happened in four years of my life. I know a lot of people think four years is not that much time, but if you look at how much has happened to me, from wrestling in the middle of nowhere in Texas to wrestling all around the world, to wrestling in different countries, wrestling on TV in AEW, so much has happened to me.
“One of the things that’s happened is me growing as a person,” he continued. “I understand now that the words I say can impact people more than I’ll ever understand, they can hurt people more than I’ll ever realize. That’s why you will not catch me saying these hurtful things in 2020. 2016 me is a very different me. That’s not an excuse, I still said those things and I’ll still pay for those things. But that’s not me.”
He concluded by saying that he will be back, and that he’ll be a “better version of myself.”
“Earlier I spoke with Sammy, he apologized and we had an open discussion,” Banks wrote in her response on Monday, signing the letter with her real name. “Words like the comments he made, jokingly or not, have absolutely no place in our society! I don’t condone or tolerate this kind of behavior. What one thinks is just a side comment can have a massive impact on someone else’s life, and can send the wrong message. We have to hold ourselves accountable for our actions and the words we say, and I hope this situation shows him that. I hope from this point on, in order for growth and change within our community to take place, we all can continue to have these conversations. No person, man, woman or child, should ever be subjected to a feeling of fear, or any unsafe environment. We all have to do better not just for ourselves, but for generations to come.”
