20 Times WWE Was An Absolute Mess In 2020

12. Running An Abusive Teacher Storyline After #SpeakingOut

Lana Bobby Lashley
WWE.com

In June, the beleaguered victims of professional wrestling's culture of abuse bravely came forth through the #SpeakingOut movement, pushing for change in an industry that had not only let them down, but systematically failed to protect them from vile, criminal abuse perpetrated by manipulative scumbags in positions of power. Many of these allegations came from former students whose trainers had used said power to inflict disgusting assault on their trainees.

This coincided with WWE opting to run the Thatch-as-Thatch-Can storyline in NXT, through which Timothy Thatcher inflicts ritual punishment on young hopefuls looking for a break in WWE.

The optics of this are objectively terrible. Even if #SpeakingOut wasn't in WWE's mind when putting the Thatcher idea together, it should have been abandoned straight away, though perhaps we shouldn't expect a company that still books and promotes Velveteen Dream and Riddle to show such self-awareness.

Channel Manager
Channel Manager

Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.