Last week on Impact Wrestling, TNA ring announcer and backstage interviewer Christy Hemme made an announcing mistake live on air and found herself receiving an outrageous scolding from Austin Aries.
Christy had mistakenly announced Aries and his partner Bobby Roode as Christopher Daniels and Kazarian, their opponents.
Upon entering the ring, Aries cornered Christy until she correctly announced their names. Then he climbed to stand on the second rope. This is normally a typical part of a wrestler’s entrance, but at this point Christy was still in the corner. Thus, Aries was sticking his crotch in Christy’s face, an unequivocal form of sexual harassment performed live on national television.
Watch the incident below:
Christy took it in stride on the show, but voiced her disgust in a tweet the next night:
“@therealgarys: Did @austinaries Put His Nuts In @hemmepowered Face? #Impactlive” Yes. Unacceptable.
— Christy (@hemmepowered) May 10, 2013
TNA President Dixie Carter adressed the matter today, tweeting:
TNA has ZERO tolerance for inappropriate behavior. The incident with Austin Aries was taken very seriously and handled immediately.
— Dixie Carter (@TNADixie) May 14, 2013
Spike TV, TNA’s American television outlet, has gone on record about the incident as well. WrestleZone.com received a statement from Spike TV’s Senior VP of Communications David Schwarz, who said on behalf of the channel, “We have a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment. We discussed [the incident] with our partner. [Aries is] being disciplined.”
Schwarz continued, “I’m trying to get more information on what action is being taken. Dixie Carter took this very personally. He will be disciplined. Again, we have a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment. I’m not sure specifically how [the discipline] will be handled. To what extent, I don’t know. This is certainly something we don’t condone and don’t tolerate. Such behavior is not welcome. I think that a statement of some sort will be coming. That’s being worked out. But immediate action will be taken.”
So far, Austin Aries has not officially acknowledged the incident, though he tweeted a message full of testicle jokes on Sunday that was obviously meant to make light of it all.
What action do you think TNA should take?
