Paul Levesque states Patrick Clark was off TV due to car accident

Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/08/17/paul-levesque-states-patrick-clark-was-off-tv-due-to-car-accident/

During an interview with CBS Sports’ Brent Brookhouse, WWE executive Paul Levesque denied that Velveteen Dream (Patrick Clark) was kept off television due to a series of allegations.

In April, there was a Reddit post claiming that Clark had interacted inappropriately online with a fan and some of their friends, who the user claimed were all under the age of 18. It promoted Clark to post the following denial of any wrongdoing:

Be assured I did not communicate inappropriately with anyone. A private photo of mine was shared without my consent or knowledge and I am working with a third party to look into this matter.

In speaking to the outlet, Levesque outlined that Clark was off television recovering from a car accident the performer was involved with in June:

You know, in this day today, accusations are made and you take them all very seriously. You look into them the best you can, and you find out what is there and what isn’t. In this situation, was also involved in a car accident. That’s what took him off TV. In the moment, all this other stuff happens and you look into it and you find that there is a situation that people bring to everyone’s attention, you look into it and find that it is what it is and there’s nothing there.

Everything that we have done, we are comfortable with him continuing to do what he does and everything else. But he had a car accident. It stemmed down to people thought we removed him from TV for different reasons. We didn’t. He was in a car accident.

Levesque added that once Clark was medically cleared, they moved forward with their plans and reiterated that they didn’t find anything when looking into the allegations.

Clark made his return to NXT programming on last week’s episode as a mystery participant in a three-way match with KUSHIDA and Cameron Grimes. It was his first appearance since the Backlot Brawl match with Adam Cole at the NXT TakeOver: In Your House event that aired on June 7th.

Yeah those annoying “car accidents” involving underage boys. So pesky

I dont buy that excuse about the accident. I never heard that the accident was that serious.

You think it never happened at all? Or do you think that it was a mild accident that they are using as an excuse?

I tried googling it to see if any legit news popped up, but nothing. There were some websites using terms like “horrific” when describing the accident, but they weren’t reputable sites and they seemed to be going off hearsay anyways. Definitely suspicious.

I just think that Triple H is trying to take attention away from the other problem by saying that it was the accident that has kept Dream off of tv. Meanwhile the WWE must have been busy investigating what happened. They must want us to forget and move on.

I could be wrong. Only they know how seroius the car accident was.

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Being in car accidents usually gets you on WWE TV!

https://twitter.com/NXT_Fan_

The original accuser back in April maintains he was a victim of Dream’s creepiness.

HHH also did not want to talk about it on today’s conference call. Very suspicious

Here’s some background on why HHH is scared to take questions about the guy he is featuring - https://deadspin.com/wwe-allows-alleged-child-sex-predator-to-waltz-back-int-1844787991

Just purely from a PR standpoint, I don’t understand what’s so hard. If a credible allegation is made, bench the guy while its investigated. If it turns out to be true (or inconclusive), you fire him and you did the right thing for business by not featuring him in the meantime. If it turns out to be false, help the guy sue his accuser.

And that’s not even taking morality into account, since we’re talking WWE here.

I guess the real question here, is do people think that the WWE would go to the lengths of a major cover up over something like this for Velveteen Dream?

Even if you believe that that they don’t care about the morality of the situation if its true (which I get), I have a hard time thinking that they would take such a massive risk to for an NXT mid carder.

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It’s not like they’ve covered up worse things cough “Jimmy Snuka” cough…

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Let’s say that’s true, and the Vince/briefcase story did happen. Covering up a murder in the 80’s Involving a main event level talent was something they could get away with, and the motive at the time would have been that the talent was a main event level performer who’s family was very heavily tied to the company. It’s fucked up, and this is no defense of anything, I’m just looking at this the way a detective would, which is looking for motive.

Covering up an underage sexual assault situation in 2020 for a mid card NXT performer seems highly risky. What’s the motive?

I’m not questioning the morality here, I don’t put it past them if the situation was different. I also think if they are covering it up, that is 100% fucked up. I’m just asking the question, why would they risk such a huge PR disaster for Velveteen Dream? I have to imagine there is more to this story that we are not aware of.

I don’t think there is a cover-up… But they are certainly turning a blind eye to anybody they had plans for / look upon as a investment in the future, coming out of the #SpeakingOut movement. Riddle and Dream are both fine and featured prominently… But Jack Gallagher and El Ligero are dead immediately.

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From a PR point of view, it would’ve been easier to cut him loose based on accusations but from a moral point of view, I’m not sure they should do things based off of accusations or based off of people on twitter branding him guilty. Doing things for PR reasons isn’t the right thing to do in my opinion which I know is the opposite of how the social media courts want things to be done but fuck em…

The thing is HHH is trying to sweep all this away under the rug when it’s obvious very little investigation was done. The accuser himself wasn’t even contacted.

It’s more proof that HHH is really in over his head in his current role.

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The Riddle story is completely different. From what Meltzer reported, WWE was aware of the Riddle situation two years ago as he apparently reported everything. When the news broke to the public, nothing was new. Again, according to Meltzer.

So it really just leaves Dream. I don’t know man, I really dont think they would risk so much by sweeping this under the rug for an NXT midcard talent. Remember, this is ultimately Vinces call, do you really think Vince cares that much about Velveteen Dream to risk covering up a underage sex story? This is something that if it came out, could really really hurt the company. Maybe you’re right, but I have a hard time believing they would risk so much for him.

The easy thing to do would be to just fire him. WWE are bleeding talent right now, so many guys that are underutilized there. They don’t need Velveteen Dream, he doesnt move the needle there.

Again in Riddle’s case - the allegations remain, and WWE chose to believe Riddle rather than the victim.

Dream is just another case of them selectively choosing who they select to believe. The evidence seems pretty solid against him.

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And they clearly have big fans for Dream - he’s a pushed and protected guy, always gets elaborate entrances and has been an upper mid card to main event guy for the last few years.

He’s talented and I was a fan but all of the evidence coming out related to him paints a disturbing picture

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Again, I think riddles case is different. I’d rather not group cases together, like John said, every case is different and should be treated as such and not lumped together.

Look, you may be right. It’s very possible that this is as simple as them choosing to believe Dream over the alleged victim. Given the stakes involved with the case, I hope they either went to the police or hired an independent company to investigate.

My point is that I just don’t think they would go into a massive coverup for Velveteen Dream. 10 years ago, for sure. In 2020, I have a hard time buying it.

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