Former Ring of Honor World Champion Davey Richards has announced his retirement from professional wrestling in the wake of several organizations – including Prestige Wrestling, St. Louis Anarchy and Team Ambition Wrestling School, which was heavily branded around Richards’ wrestling persona and where he worked. as coach – cut ties with him on Friday after allegations of domestic violence surfaced.
“I have not been arrested or charged, and I maintain that these allegations are 100% false,” Richards said in a statement to Wrestling Inc. “Maybe it’s just my time to step aside. I don’t want to influence anyone or any promotion. People need this sport – it gives them a place to belong and hope, I don’t want to be the one to take that away away or tarnish it. I’ll be fine and boy will I miss you all.”
Wrestling Inc. has learned that Richards’ rejection of the aforementioned organizations was prompted in part by a screenshot circulating around his local wrestling scene in St. Louis. The screenshot is an exact representation of a court document that Wrestling Inc. obtained, in which a former partner alleges that Richards “engaged in inappropriate and unreasonable behavior … including significant use of cocaine and other drugs and domestic violence (against another partner).”
While neither Prestige Wrestling nor Team Ambition explained why they parted ways with Richards, Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp said on Twitter that the campaigns terminated their affiliation with Richards for “violating their policies and code of conduct due to allegations of domestic abuse.” St. Louis Anarchy told Sapp that Richards was fired for violating the code of conduct, which Wrestling Inc. has confirmed. In addition, Wrestling Inc. learned that Richards, in a Facebook message to a member of St. Louis Anarchy management, when told he was being removed from shows because evidence had been presented, volunteered his knowledge of a photo showing an ex-partner with facial bruises, but claimed , that there was no evidence that he caused the injuries.