The Evil History Of Pro Wrestling | Bill DeMott

In a 2014 interview with RF Shoot, when asked about the increasing news reports of developmental injuries, Ricardo Rodriguez offered a “Hey, Bill”. In the same year and for the same outlet, Curt Hawkins said that talents would write letters of complaint “all the f*cking time” back in Deep South; many were placed on a noticeboard by Bill in an attempt to let people know that he did not care. He might not have been alone; if due diligence was performed on DeMott before his return to WWE, NXT management appeared not to care, either.

The grim extent of DeMott’s behaviour started to surface when Judas Devlin, who later found fame as Luchasaurus in AEW, spoke with Vendetta Radio in February 2015, shortly after which a complaint letter he had written to WWE’s human resources department was made public. Per Devlin, DeMott frequently engaged in rancid behavior. He nicknamed Olier Grey ‘Joel Paedophile’. It was also stated in the letter that, when grieving the suicide of Florida wrestling royalty Mike Graham, students were told to “kill themselves”. This was an example of a pattern; when trainee Dante Dash revealed that he had named his finisher ‘The Davey Boy’ in tribute to the British Bulldog, DeMott said “What’s that? Turning blue and dropping dead on the lawn?”

That was not verbal abuse. That was nothing you could even begin to argue was said as a harsh motivational tool. That was a glimpse into a thoroughly nasty mind.

Accusations of homophobic and racist language were also levelled against DeMott. As more NXT personnel came forward, Terra Calaway went into specifics, accusing DeMott of verbally abusing a trainee of middle eastern descent. DeMott called the trainee a “terrorist” “Aladdin” who “needs to go back to making bombs”. As more wrestlers came forward, Trent Barretta tweeted “About f*cking time” - insinuating that he agreed with the accusations, and was relieved that DeMott might finally be held accountable. He was. DeMott, who was also accused by Nemeth of enabling and protecting Matt Wichlinski - the strength and conditioning coach who left a social media audit trail of his sexual harassment - resigned in disgrace on March 6, 2015. He denied the allegations.

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Bill DeMott was a relic, a small man, and wrestling has flourished without him - but the disturbing truth is that his methods once worked, in a roundabout way. AEW World Champion Kenny Omega has actually credited DeMott for his evolution and outlook as a professional wrestler.

Omega was a virtual nobody in the Canadian indie wilderness when he signed his WWE developmental deal in 2005. This wasn’t his dream. He felt this instinctively, but the lure of the opportunity convinced him to ignore that. He left of his own volition in under a year, feeling an intense wanderlust for Japan and desire to express himself. While he didn’t enjoy his time in Deep South Wrestling - nobody did - he is grateful for it. He told his Twitch followers on a 2025 stream that he’d like to one day shake DeMott’s hand. DeMott toughened him up and allowed him “to develop a palette to eat sh*t on a daily basis again and again and again”. Omega reckons that without this abuse, without getting “the f*ck beaten out of” him, he would never have survived the American indies. The modern AEW and NJPW legend might not have reached that peak without his brutal formative experience. Does this justify DeMott’s conduct?

No, it does not.

Certain professional wrestlers who were trained by reputable modern schools have accomplished far more than DeMott did in what was a deeply mediocre career, throughout which he was never over nor drew any money.

An idea exists that wrestling has gone soft and that a certain brand of tough, toxic love is necessary to instil within trainees. It is inevitable that a wrestler will suffer some sort of knock or even serious injury mid-match with the expectation that they must finish it regardless. How else to equip the trainee with this intolerance to pain other than by subjecting them to repeated batterings in the training ring? DeMott might argue that the verbal abuse was also justified.

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