Sammy Guevara Should Be Allowed To Learn From His Mistake

by Vincent Williams @VinWilliams28

Tweet

photo from All Elite Wrestling

All Elite Wrestling’s “Spanish God” Sammy Guevara has found himself in some deep doo-doo. After a brief Twitter back-and-forth with WWE talent Sasha Banks, the Twitterverse pulled out their shovels and dug up a four-year-old clip of Guevara proclaiming that he wanted to “rape” the WWE wrestler. The timing could not be worse for the Cuban-American. This is coming off the heels of the #SpeakingOut movement that swept through the pro wrestling community over the weekend, where numerous women in the industry opened up about sexual misconduct in the pro wrestling ranks.

Sexual misconduct should be punished and amiss sexual remarks should not be tolerated. Throughout our country’s history, people have made egregious mistakes, learned from them, and moved forward with their lives. Many musicians would have had their careers ended a long time ago if they were not given the space to mature. Rick Ross would have called it a career after his rape lyrics. Ozzy Osbourne’s song “Suicide Solution” would have abruptly ended his career after a young man took his own life while reportedly listening to the track. The infamous Eminem would have never hit the pinnacles he did had his career been thwarted by his homophobic lyrics over the years.

​In our society, we expect young people with millions of dollars and national television exposure to live perfect lives. Even if some of the people criticizing them live a life that is an utter trainwreck, young ones in the national spotlight are expected to be pristine role models. That is not an expectation based on reality. They are going to make asinine statements and do idiotic things. It is a part of being young. By curtailing the careers of young people who make mistakes will deprive our society of future moguls, businesspeople, great entertainers, and leaders that will move the country forward. As a nation, we have seemingly lost the ability to forgive.

Unfortunately, Guevara went way into the deep end of the Pool of Inappropriate Comments. He should face the music for his comments four years ago. He has issued an apology, with a possible fine or suspension coming. That said, it was four years ago when he was twenty-two years old. Many twenty-somethings in our society have committed acts of stupidity, yet have been given the space to learn and grow from their transgressions. Many thirty and forty-somethings continuously say reprehensible things. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon once used a racial slur on air, and he was in his fifties. Guevara is now a twenty-six-year-old with an extremely promising career ahead of him. By the way, he has kept a pretty clean public profile since his remarks in 2016.

The emotional state of the pro wrestling community is volatile right now given the barrage of sexual misconduct incidents coming to light. All of the backlash aimed at Guevara is understandable and warranted. Sammy Guevera needs to learn from his painfully ignorant and deplorable comments, but his career should not suffer for it.